Genesis | Book One, The Genesis Series

THIRTY-EIGHT

For as long as the battle had seemed, the clean-up process had gone by extremely fast. Steel had immediately been detained with the help of Bianca. Genesis troops from the northern, southern, and western facilities had swiftly moved in on the remaining soldiers, detaining most of them.

A few had escaped, but Genesis would eventually be able to track them down before they caused any real damage. The security vans had immediately taken Amber, Leo, and Adam back to their headquarters upon arrival. Their injuries had been far too severe to wait any longer.

Kai, Dylo and the others had hitched a plane ride back with the eastern facility's troops.

It was very silent, to say the least, but Kai hadn't been bothered by it. Eliza and Dylo had fallen asleep on each other from exhaustion, so he'd have something to tease them about when they woke up.

The trip back to headquarters wasn't particularly comfy either. Shortly after they'd boarded the aircraft, Director Callan had contacted them and informed them of some rather discomforting news, but Dylo and Eliza had fallen asleep beforehand.

Luckily, Kai and the others had remained awake.

It was a great displeasure for him to find out that the media had caught wind of the existence of enhanced humans. The public now knew that superhumans existed. All of their "undercover" missions had seemingly amounted to nothing.

Unlike the others, though, he wasn't that bothered by it. Besides, the general public knowing about their abilities wasn't such a bad thing. He chuckled at the thought of how his mother and little brother would react to the discovery of superpowers. Especially the fact that a member of their own family possessed them.

His mother would probably take a few days to wake up, because she'd be out cold after fainting from disbelief. His brother Malcom, on the other hand, would definitely be elated. Back at home, the boy had never stopped talking about those comic books of his. This would only enhance his rambling.

But it was Director Callan's next segment of info that had gotten him worried. Matthews' Triton machine had become fully activated before Dylo had shut it down. The wave of Genodium had affected the entire planet, which meant that billions of people across the globe-teens, adults, even infants-had just been given superhuman abilities.

That meant that they'd failed.

Even though Matthews was dead, the man's words had been correct. He'd still emerged victorious in the end. All of their pain and suffering had amounted to absolutely nothing, in the grand scheme of things.

On top of that, Ajax had escaped, and Kai was going to do everything in his power in order find him and bring him to his father. He was a man of his word.

Still though, he was still relieved that most of his friends had escaped the brutal battle with their lives.

Most of them.

The tragic deaths of Echo, Sharpshooter, and Jetstream had punctured a gaping hole inside of their ranks. Those three were the best at what they did, and without them, the combat unit as a whole suffered immensely. Kai hoped that his team would be able to fill that void.

A few hours after the fallen agents' memorial service, Director Callan had called the eight teens back into his office for another team meeting. Upon waking up and remembering what had happened to Leo, Amber had nearly gone ballistic, but she'd calmed down after a few minutes.

"So, you're saying that you're working on a cure for superhumans?" Leo asked Dr. Damien Shaw, a transfer from the eastern facility, who was apparently serving as Matthews' replacement.