The Master Gene Ch. 12

"That's the part that's hard to explain. After the....incident, things started feeling weird. I ended up doing things that just...weren't like me. I started to believe that whatever chemical had affected me, it had also messed with my head. That's why I needed the brain scan. I needed to know what this stuff was doing to me."

Kiara put down her papers as he finished up, then sat back as she pondered what he'd told her. He'd been lying to her of course, the simple fact that what he'd said was true then all he'd really needed to do was talk to a doctor and they'd have arranged all the tests he'd needed on his own without any need for secrecy whatsoever. However, exactly how much of what he'd said was a lie and how much was the truth was a tricky part.

For example, something had definitely been affecting his brain. She'd seen the record of the scan and when whatever his sister did to him happened his brain had gone haywire. Parts of his brain had suddenly lit up so badly that she was surprised he hadn't suffered a stroke right then.

Ultimately it didn't really matter. What mattered at the moment was getting her hands on Derrick. Once she was done with him he'd gladly tell her every little detail of what was really going on. By that point he'd care more about pleasing her then he would about his own family, which meant that she could get rid of his sister then with not even a frown from him.

"All this is very nice," she began, "but it still doesn't change the fact that she broke protocol and in doing so she endangered both you and herself."

Kiara paused then to let her words sink in. However before she could continue to pound desperation into him, Derrick responded. "What do you want?" he asked.

"What do you mean?" she responded, now somewhat nervous.

"If you were going to fire my sister, you would have done it last night. That means you want something. So just tell me what it is so I can give it to you."

This was wrong. She'd been planning to push Derrick over the course of the next few days, driving him into a corner where she could then throw him a lifeline, only this lifeline would pull him into a lion's cage. Instead he was boldly walking into the cage, heedless of the danger in front of him. That took a kind of confidence that unnerved her.

He was planning something, she was sure of it. Well if that was the case, better to just fire his sister and cut ties with him now, rather than risk outhinking whatever plan he had concocted.

"Well if that's the case, why don't we talk about it over dinner at my place?" she told him with a knowing smile.

Derrick took a deep breath before responding. "What time?"

"How about 7, that should give us plenty of time to....chat," Kiara answered as she gave him a card with her home address on it.

Derrick took the card and then stood up to leave. As soon as he reached the door however, he paused and turned back to her. "I just want you to understand something about me. For me, I would do anything to protect the people I love, no matter how much I may despise doing it."

"We'll see."

"Yeah, I guess we will," he retorted before finally leaving.

Well that had gone exactly as she'd planned it. She had planned it that way, hadn't she? Yes, of course she had. She'd definitely planned to lure him to her home so she could teach him just who exactly was REALLY in control here. Kiara leaned back on her desk, confident that she was about to get exactly what she wanted.

All she had to do was ignore that strange voice in the back of her head yelling at her that something was very wrong here...