Hey everyone! Now that The Catalyst is finished, I thought it would be fun to share this with you. This was the original version of Chapter 12, before I scrapped it and rewrote it.
Essentially, this is the conversation about the Harbingers' plans that Dameon had bugged and showed to Gloria - but in much more detail, and from Phaedra's POV! At the time I realized it wasn't important to spend a whole chapter on this stuff so I just put the important stuff into the bugged parts that Dameon showed Gloria in the actual Chapter 12.
Anyways, I hope you enjoy this little sojourn into Phaedra's head :)
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Phaedra leaned against the wall, allowing a satisfied grin to form on her face as she watched the boy - Dameon - be escorted out of the rickety apartment by Lukas. It was amusing to watch, because although Lukas, who was twenty, was probably about a year older than Dameon, he was at least three inches shorter. Nevertheless, he wore a grim expression as he half-dragged Dameon into the elevator.
The moment the doors slid shut, Phaedra's father relaxed, his tense muscles unknotting, his tightly crossed arms untangling from each other. He ran a distracted hand through his curtain of hair, and turned to Phaedra. Of course while talking to Dameon he had maintained a confident facade, but Phaedra knew her father to well to believe it. She had noted the way his cheeks had hollowed while he exchanged taunts with Dameoun, how he had appeared to age slightly over the course of the conversation. His face was now pale, and gaunt.
He clasped her shoulder with a meaty hand, "A good job ya did there, Phaedra. Some memory, eh? Couldn't believe my eyes when ya recognized that piece of crud. Sometimes ya suprise me..."
Phaedra forced a nonchalant smile onto her face and waved away the compliment, "Probably a fluke. Not really know for my amazing memory, eh?"
Her father furrowed his eyebrows, shaking his head wonderingly, "But see that's the thing. Most times you're just like the rest of us, but sometimes ya have these strokes of brilliance. Maybe that AIJP didn't do right by ya."
Phaedra felt her body go rigid as she registered that this conversation was drifting into dangerous territory, and she struggled to relax, her mind racing. Lying to her father was never an easy task.
"Wait a sec, I'm not saying you're like your ma or anything," her father said hastily, completely misinterpreting her sudden silence, "It's just that...well crud, maybe you're sharper than we thought."
"Don't get my hopes up," she said, trying hard to sound offhand, "Sometimes I dream of that too. It don't matter though, I've long since accepted that I'm the dumb one of the family."
She had barely finished her sentence when the elevator doors slid open, revealing Lukas storming back in. Phaedra immediately lost her father's attention and she thanked the stars for Lukas's love of dramatic entrances. Her father turned to Lukas, looking at him expectantly, and Lukas returned it with a thumbs up, "Slumdog's on the metro back home. He looked shaken up, didn't talk a whole lot. Pretty rude when he got on. Ya sure he'll tell her?"
"He'll tell her," Phaedra's father asserted, "So that's taken care of."
Lukas bit his lip, and Phaedra knew what he was thinking. The same worries that she too harbored. Her father, ignorant as ever, paid no heed and continued to talk, "Nasty turn of events though, and I think it's safe to assume that this location is compromised."
Uncle Derek snorted, his mustache quivering. The couch groaned in protest as he shifted, "I thought we chose this apartment in the first place 'cause it was off the radar, an abandoned renovation project, and no one lives in this entire building. Now you're saying that any old slumdog can just walk in? I dunno about you, but I'm not so sure about this Dameon fella. From what Phaedra and Lukas say, being a crudden Lapillus smartie, he heard enough to guess what we're planning. May even have heard about the suburbs. You're placing your trust in the hope that he won't run straight to Enforcement? And then there's that message that you gave him. Ray, the past week we've all been worrying that...that she might have seen the vid on the Network, and knowing a little somethin' about our plans, gone to Enforcement and spilled the beans. If that message manages to scare her into staying out of this, then it was a stroke of genius. But you might be underestimating her, in which case that message is nothin' but a harbinger of our doom. Personally, I think you coulda played it better. What if your plan fails?" There were murmurs and a few scattered nods among the rest of the Harbingers.
YOU ARE READING
The Catalyst
Science FictionDameon has always been told that his father's chemical experiments are to serve the Greater Good, no matter how cruel they seem. He believes it -- until a series of murders and attacks leave him utterly alone, with the realization that his father's...
