Inspiration Point Read online

“Yes, he didn’t want to keep Spencer waiting. He knows what he is like if he gets upset. Did you sort anything out with him?” He asked.

  “Not really, although I do believe that he cares for me in his own way I suppose.”

  “I do too, and I guess that’s a good place to start,” he concluded.

  “I think I'll have an early night, I might go and get ready for bed,” I said watching for their reactions. They gave nothing away just smiled and nodding saying they had the same idea.

  I went to the bathroom and brushed my hair and teeth before cleaning my face. I looked at the clock as I entered my room, it was still a little early for bed so I read a book for a while until I heard the others say goodnight. With that, I closed my eyes and hoped Emin would wake me in a few hours with some good news.

  Separation

  Emin’s hand lightly covered my mouth when he woke me up so I didn’t make any noise. He signaled to be quiet as we walked silently to his room. When we entered Mum, Dad and Zeke were all waiting. I looked towards the camera, I still wasn’t sure how they had done it.

  Emin started by telling us what they had achieved over the last day. He spoke quietly even though he reminded us that his room was sound proofed from the days when he wanted to be a drummer.

  They had managed to piggyback onto the signal that Davis was using throughout the house, and Zeke created a remote device so once we were all in bed they could record footage which could be played back later when we were meeting. Emin had used the remote tonight to record and then started the playback while he woke us all up.

  “Since we haven’t heard them move downstairs I would say it’s been a success,” he said smiling at Zeke. “I thought it would give us a chance to go over our plans each night, so we all know what’s going on.”

  “We probably only have about half an hour though,” Zeke interrupted. “We all have to be back in bed before the recording stops.”

  “Well I for one am very impressed boys,” Mum said proudly putting her arms around both of them.

  “Thanks Mum, but let’s get to work, what’s your plan Dad?”

  Dad went over his plan with everyone about separating the results to provide Spencer with a creation which will make him a lot of money.

  “Do you think that will be enough to end this?” Mum asked.

  “I think it’s worth a shot. I can’t consciously create what he wants, but obviously there is a risk for all of us if we do this.”

  He stopped to gauge our reactions.

  “It just pisses me off to think he will get rich off something you have created,” Emin added.

  “After everything we’ve been through that is the last thing I’m worried about,” Dad reassured him.

  “No offense Professor, but didn’t you try to do that before and you couldn’t?” Zeke asked.

  “Actually I have some theories on that already,” I interrupted. “After reading through Dad’s work, it’s given me some ideas.”

  “Excellent,” Dad said smiling at me. “I hoped that would happen, I have some ideas of my own. Between the two of us, I hope that we can have it done before Spencer asks too many questions.”

  “What about Tyler?” Emin added. I flinched again at hearing his name after our kiss this afternoon. “Will he know what you’re up to?”

  “I don’t believe so, but even if he does I think we can trust him,” Dad said.

  Emin and Zeke grunted at this, obviously not agreeing with Dad’s assessment of Tyler. This made me stop and realize that I didn’t agree with them. Maybe I believed that if given another chance he would help us.

  “The hardest part will be convincing Spencer that he won’t need the other strain. But I suppose we can worry about that once we are ready,” Dad finished.

  We all seemed to agree and decided we had risked enough time from our rooms for one night and headed back to bed. Zeke followed me to my room and came inside lightly shutting the door behind him.

  “I can’t stay long,” he said softly.

  “I know, and I’m sorry Zeke, I didn’t want him to kiss me,” I said hoping that he would hear the sincerity in my voice.

  “I know Hayln,” he sighed as he looked at me. “I saw most of what happened, and I'm not upset with you, I promise. It just threw me to see you in his arms. He genuinely does care for you. It hurt to watch actually.” I reached out to hold his hands. “And when that idiot downstairs started going on about it, I lost it, I had to go outside.”

  “I understand,” I said pulling him close to me so my arms could wrap around his waist.

  “That doesn’t mean I don’t want to deck him next time I lay eyes on him,” he said into my hair.

  “I might just let you.”

  He tilted my chin to kiss me softly, and warmth once again swept through me. His arms felt strong around me as his hands touched the skin on my back. I sighed wanting this to last much longer than I knew it would.

  “I could try to make that recording go longer if you would like me to stay,” he said with a mischievous smile.

  “Well I’m happy to see you haven’t lost your confidence,” I teased.

  He laughed quietly, but it was enough to remind us, he had to leave. He kissed the palm of my hand and wished me goodnight just like he has done every night he has stayed here and then left my room without a sound.

  Dad and I were in the lab bright, and early the next morning going over some of our ideas before Tyler arrived. Both of our proposals to separate the strain were plausible. However, Dad’s was a little less conspicuous, so we decided to start there. Tyler arrived about half an hour later, he moved slowly down the stairs and took his seat by the window.

  “You started early this morning, Spencer will be pleased.”

  This is the sort of comment that should have infuriated me, but there was something in Tyler’s face that made me ignore his comment, Dad did too.

  We worked quietly and Tyler kept to himself not really watching us too closely. Our first experiment wasn’t successful, but we moved on quickly to the next one. We were nearly ready to start again when my father’s attention turned to Tyler.

  “Does Spencer hurt you?”

  It was a blunt question, and completely out of the blue, but it worked. Tyler looked up at us shocked. When he met our gaze, his face gave us the answer. He hung his head.

  “Did he hurt you last night?”

  He didn’t move or say anything, Dad persisted, “Tyler.”

  He stood up from his seat and lifted his shirt to expose his chest. His ribs were blue with bruises.

  “Hayln, could you go get your mother please.”

  “No Professor,” Tyler said before I could stand. “It’s not necessary really, Aunt Maive checked me over last night.”

  “Why did he do this?” Dad asked him.

  “Davis told him about my kiss with Hayln,” he said a little embarrassed. “He thought I needed reminding of what I’m here to do.”

  I started to move toward him, to offer him some comfort I suppose, when he sat back down wincing.

  “If you don’t mind it would be better for all of us if you just kept working.”

  I went back to our work but watched him now and then, starting to realize what his life must have been like for the last few years.

  “Does he do that often?” I asked.

  He seemed surprised to hear me speak, and he didn’t answer right away.

  “Often enough I suppose, although it has been a couple of months since the last time.”

  “I’m truly sorry Tyler,” my father said a little ashamed. “I wish your mother had trusted me more, so she could have come to me in the beginning instead of Spencer.”

  “Me too,” he replied.

  “Is that why you agreed to help him watch me – because he hurt you?” I asked.

  “Partly, the other reason was Aunt Maive. She agreed to help him with me years ago, but we have developed real bond since then. He hates it. If he thinks she isn’t fulfilling her role, he
does the same to her. Sometimes when I refuse his requests, he punishes her, knowing that has more of an effect on me anyway.”

  I felt sick over this cruelty and guilty for believing Tyler was a willing participant in this plot against my family.

  “I am sorry I didn’t believe you earlier,” I said.

  “Don’t apologize Hayl’s, you have every reason to be angry.” He smiled softly at me, and I felt a real hope that I might be able to get my best friend back. That is if we can escape Spencer of course.

  “Tyler could I ask another question of you?” My father said cautiously.

  “Of course Professor.”

  “Who was the other scientist who Spencer has been working with?”

  “His name was Christian Spencer.”

  I looked to my father to see what this meant.

  “A relative?” I asked

  “His brother,” Tyler confirmed grimly.

  “I haven’t heard of him before. Did he make any significant discoveries with the strain?” My father asked a little taken back by this news.

  “Not really, he couldn’t seem to grasp the composition. I daresay he would have loved to have seen those notes.”

  “So why hasn’t Spencer taken them to him,” I asked.

  “Because he died just over a week ago, his funeral was the day of the Benefit, which is why he didn't arrive until the next day.”

  I remembered how Spencer looked when he arrived at our house, tired and broken in his crushed suit. Then I got a horrible feeling.

  “Did Spencer....” I stopped talking before I finished the question, as I wasn't sure if I wanted the answer. Tyler put my mind at ease.

  “No, he was an extremely sick man. He’d been ill for years, but in the end, he died of pneumonia. Spencer was extraordinarily close to him, he would have never hurt him.”

  With all questions answered for the time being we returned to our work. It wasn’t until Zeke came into the lab that we spoke again. As Zeke entered the room, his eyes went straight to Tyler. He obviously wanted to make sure that Tyler knew he wasn’t happy about what happened with me yesterday. This didn’t seem to bother Tyler, he just continued to read his book.

  “Evelyn said it might be a good time for a break if you’re ready.”

  “I’d rather keep working actually, but you two should have a break,” Dad said, completely focused on his work.

  “I’ll let Mum know to bring you something down,” I said as I headed upstairs following Zeke with Tyler right behind me.

  Davis laughed to himself as the three of us entered the room, and Ian immediately pulled his attention away. My mother acknowledged this as she spoke to me.

  “Your father’s not taking a break is he?” She didn’t seem surprised.

  “No, but he does need to eat. Would you be able to take something down to him?”

  “Of course, just like old times really. He never used to come upstairs to eat when he was close to discovering something. You two must have had a productive morning.”

  “Not bad,” I commented watching Emin, Zeke and Tyler all glaring at each other across the table. I decided to grab my lunch and head outside to the rabbits. They would be easier to deal with than the three boys in the kitchen.

  The rabbit with the black patch, came back over to me, just like yesterday. But I still wasn’t successful in getting him to sit on his hind legs, to get the food on offer. I was determined not to give up, so I persisted with my attempts every few minutes.

  I had nearly finished my lunch as Zeke came out to join me. I raised my eyebrow appraising his mood as he walked towards me.

  “Don’t worry, I haven’t touched a hair on his precious head,” he grumbled sitting on the grass. “It hasn’t been easy though, since he is entirely confident that his kiss with you yesterday proves that you have feelings for him.”

  I realized then that Tyler is still probably under the impression that I haven’t chosen between the two of them.

  “I’m so sorry Zeke, I haven’t told Tyler about us.” I said suddenly feeling guilty.

  “Well you haven’t really had the chance, have you,” he said smiling through the hair that had fallen into his eyes. “And I promise I'll behave myself until you do, no matter how annoying he may be.”

  “Thank you,” I smiled back at him getting lost in his eyes again. If possible, they seemed even more vibrant outside with trees and grass around us.

  “That is as long as you haven’t changed your mind. You did seem more comfortable with him today.”

  The way he spoke I knew he didn’t believe I had changed my mind about us at all. He was, however, curious about my thoughts about Tyler.

  “My feelings for him have changed, but not because of his kiss.”

  I saw a flash of uncertainty on his face before I smiled to reassure him.

  “Spencer hurts him, he has been doing it on and off for years, but he did it again last night. He also hurts Aunt Maive to make sure she follows his orders, as well as to torment Tyler. I guess you were right, he didn’t have a choice.”

  “No doesn’t sound like it,” he said as he held my hand.

  He watched me trying to feed the last of the food to my little rabbit, who still hadn’t grasped the concept.

  “Emin tells me, you're trying to train him,” he said sounding slightly amused.

  “Only because he said I couldn’t.”

  “Well that’s as good a reason as any I suppose, do you mind if I keep trying when you go back to the lab?”

  “Sure, are you sick of the computer work? I questioned.

  "Well after our brilliant success last night we thought we had better give it a rest, we don’t want to make the henchman suspicious.”

  “Brilliant and modest, aren’t I lucky,” I teased.

  “You are actually,” he said, playing with a strand of my hair.

  “So they don’t expect anything then?” I said feeling a little breathless at his slightest touch.

  “Nope, they are none the wiser, I told you - brilliant.”

  I noticed Tyler at the door then, watching us. “We better get back to it Hayln.”

  I nodded and stood to go back inside, “I will see you later.”

  Zeke smiled back at me. “Time for you to be brilliant Miss Knox.”

  I went back downstairs with Tyler, Mum was still with Dad trying to convince him to eat some more. Once she saw us arrive she packed up to let us get started again.

  “Let me know if he gets hungry Hayln,” she said smiling at me as she left.

  “No worries,” I smiled back. It was gratifying to watch them together, they seemed to be reconnecting.

  We got straight back into our work, systematically ruling out several options by mid afternoon. I had started to get a little frustrated and grabbed Dad’s old folder flicking to the part about the composition on the strain. I was sure the answer was here I just had to find it. I paced around the room, sat on the stairs, even listened to my iPod for a while trying to get some clarity – it didn’t work. I went back to the folder flicking through the pages when it came to me. I was sure it would work.

  I explained my idea to Dad without remembering Tyler was in the room. Dad seemed oblivious as well as he moved to get things started. It was like we were both given a shot of adrenaline we moved so quickly. I noticed Tyler move over to where we were working, looking at my notes. I saw his face as he watched us, he didn’t seem to understand what we were doing, or at least it didn’t look like it. He went back to his chair but watched us more regularly now. We kept working, both knowing how close we were to achieving our goal. Tyler seemed to sense our excitement. However, he kept his distance.

  We were ready to test our strain against some common viruses. Dad held my hand beneath the counter to get my attention. Without saying anything, I knew that no matter what happened next, I wasn’t to give anything away in front of Tyler. I gave him a nod to confirm I understood and watched him introduce the first virus to our new strand. He lo
oked under the microscope, but his expression was impossible to read. He passed it over to me and held my hand again to steady me. A rush of excitement flooded through me. I looked at Tyler, he was watching us cautiously. I knew I had to keep my composure.

  As I looked into the microscope I knew what I would see, and I was right. The virus had no effect on our strain. We kept testing it with other viruses whilst saying out loud that it wasn’t conclusive for Tyler’s benefit. Every test was a success, no virus had any effect on it. Inside, I was on cloud nine, because this was my first real success, but we both contained our excitement.

  We knew the next round of tests had to be done on our rabbits. However, if we did that in front of Tyler, he would know we were close to something, and he'd be forced to explain it to Spencer.

  Dad moved to another bench and started working on some experiments from this morning. I knew this meant we weren’t going to do any more work on our strain until Tyler left. I helped him for a little while and then suggested I might help Mum with dinner. He agreed, so I went upstairs, Tyler watched me leave, but he stayed with Dad in the lab.

  Mum seemed surprised to see me in the kitchen. I walked towards the stove top it smelt like bolognaise.

  “I didn’t expect to see you up here yet, you seemed to be onto something,” she commented whilst keeping an eye on the men in the lounge room.

  “Why’s that?” I asked as I thought Dad and I had been pretty convincing downstairs.

  “I heard these two talking, they thought you might have made a breakthrough.”

  I sighed, obviously we weren’t as inconspicuous as we thought.

  “We thought we had, but we had a setback, I thought I would take a break.”

  Mum watched me carefully and knew there was more to the story but didn’t push it whilst they were listening. Ian came into the room stretching from his position in front of the monitors.

  “Smells good, Mrs Knox.”

  “Thank you Ian, but I can’t seem to get the flavor just right yet. Maybe you could have a taste Hayln.”

  I grabbed the spoon off the sink and sank it into the pot. I tasted it carefully as it was hot, Mum was right it needed something. I went to the pantry and grabbed some olive oil and then cut some fresh herbs from the garden.