Prodigy Eternal (book 2)

Chapter Forty-Four

After a few days of recovery at Incarus, the group gathered in one of the main rooms. The election was over, and Arlon Van Buren had been sworn into the highest political office in the world.

“We need to stop him,” Alex said, changing her tune. It was either her latest brush with death or the culmination of recent circumstances that made her come to the realization that Arlon was an evil that the world needed to rid itself of. Unfortunately, just as she had come to this realization, the rest of the group was having reservations, and understandably so.

“It’s too late, Alex,” Yuri said. “It’s over… we lost.”

“As long as there is air in our lungs, it’s not over,” she retorted.

“You’re starting to sound like your mum,” Aris said. “With all due respect, Alex, I agree with Yuri. Do you really think our little ‘motley crew of rebels’ can overthrow the most powerful Leader in the world?”

Alex didn’t respond.

“No disrespect to anyone in this room,” Aris continued, “but we're not superheroes. This Fox guy is too slippery — he always seems to be a few steps ahead of us.”

“Nothing is impossible,” Alex said. “I may not have the intelligence I once had, but what remains is my resolve. Some of the things I’ve done in my life may seem impossible to some, and that may be the only thing that separates us now. I’ve seen what’s possible if—”

“…if you’re a super genius,” Aris interrupted. “Great, where can we get one of those?”

The comment took the wind out of Alex’s sail, but she completely understood where people were coming from, especially since she had held the same belief not too long ago. Still, it was disheartening to her that everyone had accepted defeat. They neither had the energy nor the desire to go on another harrowing adventure and risk their lives.

“I’ve mentioned this before,” Mara said, “but you are all welcome to stay here as long as you want. Consider Incarus a place of refuge where you can lay low and recharge. As for Arlon, we’ll see how this whole thing plays out. We can only speculate as to what kind of Leader he will be. If he does anything too radical, the people will revolt.”

“Tell me about Taranya,” Milo said, changing the subject.

“What do you want to know?” Yuri asked.

“How did you guys meet her?”

“Link met her and introduced her to the group,” Yuri said.

“Actually, the way we met was a bit strange,” Link said, reflecting on the event in hindsight. “It didn’t seem so unusual at the time, but knowing what I know now, it makes me think of the situation from a new perspective.

“We met online in an underground forum for hackers. She used the codename Apollo. She hacked my system, which very few people are able to do, and this immediately gained my respect for her abilities. The friendship developed into a game, where we seemed to be in a never-ending competition to one-up each other. It was always playful, as one might expect two children to behave, and we never took offence to it. In fact, I took it as a form of flattery that someone as brilliant as her would choose me to be her object of amusement, and I think she felt the same way. There was a mutual respect for each other’s abilities.

“One day she asked me to meet her. When I did, she turned out to be every bit as obnoxious in person as she was online. She told me to call her Taranya, and I told her my real name, but she insisted on calling me by my screen name, Link. She had bright pink hair and pink eyes, which didn’t freak me out as much as it fascinated me. She was a strong, intelligent girl who clearly marched to the beat of her own drum. One of the first things I asked her was how she got her hair and eye colour to change. That’s when she introduced me to the world of bio-hacking. When I asked her how she had figured out bio-hacking, she said she found some data in some secure government database, and I never really asked too many more questions about it since I had no reason to doubt her.