Noble Revelations
Behind the Curtain
Adam walked about without a care in the world, lazily shifting his gaze from person to person. Most if not everyone avoided eye contact in some fashion or another, which was something that brought a slight smile to Adam’s face, if only for a moment. It wasn’t just because of who he was that no one wanted to be caught staring but because of the mood he was in. At the moment Adam had been put on a short leash not to venture forth and reek the usually mayhem that he was so commonly known for. No, instead he was one of the few people who was being sidelined in the main Prometheus base. Adam of course knew the exact reason for these precautions and even understood them but that didn’t change one important fact. He didn’t care.
It didn’t matter to him if his boss wanted to play it safe, he wanted to go after Alex and Carter, he wanted to make them squirm, he wanted to end them. But instead he was here, casually walking through the halls of the station heading for the big man in charge. If he was going to be forced to be here then he wasn’t going to play nice. Of course no one in their right mind expected him to play nice that wasn’t why he was here.
Adam turned the corner then headed down the hall taking in a silent breath of air. He glanced to the side and stopped once he reached an intersection. A big grin went across Adam’s face as a man in a white lab coat approached him.
“I was just looking for you. When’s the big show starting, cause I’m getting real sick of waiting.” Adam did little to hide the irritation in his tone.
“Adam. I see you’ve change your hair.” The head of Prometheus commented.
Adam stared at the man with a blank expression, watching as the man used his thumb to turn the wedding ring on his finger.
“Yeah people do that.” Adam replied while scratching the side of his head.
The sides of Adam’s hair were shaved giving him an undercut hair style while the top was braided with the ends tied together into a ponytail.
“So when do I get…”
“We’re reaching the endgame Adam. And I want to make sure you are there to see it. That is why certain personnel have not been given new orders as of yet. But don’t worry I have already set the wheels in motion you’ll have a chance to enjoy yourself. Soon…very soon.”
Adam laughed lightly for a moment not many people had the nerve to cut him off when he spoke but this was the head of Prometheus after all. He wasn’t like most people for one. He had a secret, one that Adam knew of course but so many others could only hope to guess at. That secret in fact was key to the grand plan, it was a juicy bit of information, part of the reason Adam joined Prometheus in the first place. There was that and what it entailed, what someone like the head of Prometheus could do to the world once he completed his plan. Now that was the real meat of it. Something so exciting, Adam just had to get a front row seat.
“So I can assume you’ve sent people to deal with Alexander and Carter?” Adam asked the question like he was a hunter eager to catch his prey.
The head of Prometheus turned the wedding ring with his thumb then looked into Adam’s golden brown eyes. He put on a light smile showing off some of the wrinkles on his face.
“Most of our men will defend the base. Precautions you see. So I had to look elsewhere for the manpower. But I can guarantee you that they will get the job done. Because I have certainly provided the necessary incentive.”
While the head of Prometheus spoke he pulled out a folded up piece of paper and handed it to Adam. Unfolding the paper Adam opened it, his eyes widened then settled as a dark grin appeared on his face. Things like this were why he loved his job.
“I’d say that would do it. Boss.” Adam stated in a half mocking fashion.
He looked at the paper again staring at the zeroes, seven of them in fact. 250,000,000 dollars.
Certain plans were coming to an end and with that the grand scheme could finally begin and no one would be able to stop it least of all Alexander and Carter Noble. They would be all too busy.
Chapter 1
An orange ball bounced off of the floor then the wall and rolled back toward me stopping by my dark gray oak desk.
“Haaah.” I released a loud sigh as I reached toward the ball.
The ball was on the other side of the desk so I wasn’t going to reach it by normal means. Luckily for me that wasn’t my intent, it took a second but I imagined my hand reaching the ball yanking it toward me. Just like that it flew into my hand. Telekinesis gotta love it. Unfortunately that was probably one of the more exciting ways that I’ve used my powers in a while. Six months to be exact.
That was a lot of time to be bored. I’ve definitely become jaded without anything new to keep my attention. I did have this office which was spacious spanning around 35 by 30 ft. It was on the 5th floor of Mr. Bright’s building. The office itself was one of the benefits to becoming a full time member of Mr. Bright’s enterprise. Granted it was a kind gesture but a sort of pointless one. For one what was I suppose to do with an office? My specialty was being out in the field. But instead I haven’t been given an assignment since the botched Connor Creed mission. It had occurred to me that this was a sort of punishment for my failure in that mission which cost Connor Creed his life and put Shield in the hospital.
Shield was doing better though, he was moving about and going through rehabilitation. He had finished the last of his skin grafts earlier this month. He wouldn’t be clear to work for another three months though. It was a slow process but he was making it through. Shield had me, William, AJ, Tessa and even Carter cheering for him and not to mention Beth who visits almost every day. The doctors joked that since she’s pregnant and visits Shield so often that the one day she doesn’t visit will be the day that she goes into labor meaning she’d have to come into the hospital anyway.
Beth was doing pretty good considering the situation, Shield was in the hospital and she was six months pregnant. So she had to take it easy as well, she didn’t have to worry too much since Shield’s mom and Grandma have been taking care of her. It was nice to know that Shield had progressed so much with his family. It made me wonder if I could really ask Shield to come back to all this. I mean it’s been sometime but Shield could try boxing again or maybe become a coach or something. This didn’t have to be his life….
“No, no it doesn’t.” I said the words aloud while looking out my window.
From where I was I got a decent view of the city. It was evening and the sun was setting, all in all it was a pretty peaceful looking scene. That didn’t stop the gnawing feeling in the back of my head. What was Prometheus up to, from what we could tell they hadn’t made a move in six months. Same amount of time I had been doing desk duty, huh wonder if that’s connected. The fact Prometheus wasn’t stirring up trouble especially after Adam acquired that syringe filled with my blood, was eerie to say the least.
I mean what were they planning? I know I’ve asked myself that question numerous times without coming up with a good answer. Best guess at their plan was that they were making something but what, some sort of nightmarish creature. It was anyone’s guess really, either way things just seemed too quiet to me. Normally that would be a relief I mean for one I finally reunited with my brother after four years. I completed my mission, the only thing left for me to do was kill Adam and then I would have completed all I set out to do. What then? Do I continue working for Mr. Bright as a mercenary? Do I leave that life behind? Considering the type of person I was that didn’t seem like the easiest thing to do and even if I did I’d just be as bored as I am now or more so even.
There was still Prometheus, Adam took orders meaning someone gave them. I don’t kno
w what they’re planning and how much of the world will be affected by whatever they are up to. I knew that it wasn’t my job to stop them. Of course that didn’t mean I thought what they were doing was right, it was just that things were elevating. How many people died for me to find my brother, how many people got hurt? Whatever Prometheus was planning involved me to an extent but does that me it’s my responsibility to stop them? I wasn’t a hero and I’ve never wanted to save the world. But I know one thing for sure whatever this silence is it’s unnerving. Whenever it’s this quiet it always seems to be followed with something loud.
Chapter 2
After my very exciting day of work I headed home. The walked ranged from fifteen to twenty minutes if I was feeling lazy, if I wasn’t I could get home in a manner of minutes depending on if I caused a scene or not. So a twenty minute walk it was. I lived at the end of town by the waterfront, it was a good location away from noisy and nosey people.
“Get out of the road you freakin idiot!” A nearby driver yelled.
I turned to see who the driver was yelling at. It took me a second to see that it was a blonde woman with her hair braided into a ponytail which reached the middle of her back. I couldn’t be sure but she looked familiar.
“That’s not…”
“Light’s green mister.”
I blinked twice then glanced at a little girl that was standing by me. She pointed across the street at the light.
“Light’s green.” She repeated.
I smiled then crossed the street, glancing back once I was on the other side of the street and saw that the girl’s father had reached her and grabbed ahold of her hand. I smiled to myself for a moment then headed down the street. A cold breeze blew by, the sun had set a while ago and it got pretty cold at night in the city. I closed my eyes for a moment and just listened to the sounds, people talking, cars passing, wind blowing and someone yelling for help.
“Huh?” I blinked my eyes open.
Someone was in trouble. I closed my eyes again then listened not for the cars or the wind or the people talking. But for the cry for help…there. I flexed my fingers, went into a runner’s stance and took a deep breath through my noise. Without wasting a second I rocketed forward, the wind whistled in my ears while my vision tunneled. I was moving fast, it wouldn’t take me too long before I reached my destination.
The woman was a block and half away, she was on the move running, someone was chasing after her. In a moment I was going to find out who. Without thinking I took the necessary turns. The wind raged in my ears as I stopped abruptly. I looked around for a moment then spotted two stereotypical muggers. They wore dirty sweatpants, hoodies, and dark beanies. The weirdest part was they had already been taken care of. Someone had beaten me to the punch.
“What happened here?”
“Whaaaa…huh…this woman.”
I gave the man a blank stare. “Yeah, you two dirty bags were chasing a woman I know that…”
“Noooo. We were chasing this lady. Then…then this other chick shows up. Takes us down in like twenty seconds.”
My curiosity was piqued. I knew a couple ladies that could throw down. But was it any of them or was it someone new.
“What did the lady look like?”
“She…she…she was a b…”
She was a b…Note to self that is probably the worst clue I have ever been given. I sighed loudly while putting my hands in my dress pants pocket. Well that was a bust, thought I was going to get a workout.
“Who did this? Was it you. Oh I get it Mr. Fancy suit. You decided to pick on the little guy. Well bad news man. Wrong little guys to mess with.”
I turned to look at whoever spoke it was a guy with multiple face piercings. He was bald and was accompanied by a large number of other guys each of whom wore a variety of different colors. I saw face tattoos, guys with mohawks and a couple chicks with really spiky hair. I put my hands to my mouth for a moment.
“Look guys I think he just realized how bad this is gonna be for him.”
“Thank you.”
“What was that? Begging won’t do you any good prepare to…”
I removed my hands from my mouth as he spoke revealing my smile.
“So we going to do this or what?” I said the words quickly barely able to hold back my excitement.
Chapter 3
There were a number of warehouses on the waterfront six of them in fact. Two belonged to Mr. Bright, another two belong to someone named Arc or something that sounds like arc. I had no idea who owned the fifth one and frankly didn’t care. The last one was owned by me. Which I got by trading Mr. Bright a shipping container that I stole. He was a little too eager to make the trade if you ask me, maybe it was his way of being nice.
As I approached the entrance to the warehouse, I took notice of my clothes, they were torn and tattered from the fight. I honestly didn’t think I was that rusty, most of those guys shouldn’t have managed to land a hit on me but they did, a couple of those hits actually hurt too. Granted they only hurt for a few seconds but still.
“I needed to work out.” I said aloud before placing my hand on the keypad in front of me.
The keypad scanned my left hand then displayed a set of numbers like a regular keypad. I punched in the code 090895 which caused a white light to flash three times in front of my eye while a retinal scan was underway. It took approximately ten seconds before I heard the door unlock. I opened it then went inside.
The inside of the warehouse was badly lit from the entrance to the walkway that led to the actual loft which I lived in. Most of the warehouse was still being converted into a loft so I just had a temporary set up in the back. I looked around and saw a bunch of weights all over the place which I thought was weird considering Carter isn’t usually that messy. There were plastic covers hanging from rails and catwalks while I walked further into the warehouse. It was a large area which had enough space for me to keep a cache of weapons here, emergency money and three cars all green….
“What the hell.” I stopped and stared at my cars.
For some reason or another one of them was purple and another was half blue. My eye twitched for a moment. Oh someone was going to have to explain that to me. I moved quickly walking through a hall like area at the end of it would be an area that look exactly like a loft apartment expect for the fact that it was smack dab in the middle of a warehouse I owned.
“Welcome back Alexander.” A voice announced as I entered the loft.
It was SAM…Smart Apartment Manager. He was a prototype AI system that William’s sister Katherine built. Scott Dawson had some smart children which was surprising considering he wasn’t around much. But their mom did a hell of a job raising them. Katherine was a robotic scientist, William’s second sister who I forget her name is a Professor and has written over seven books. William is an ex…striper and currently a merc.
“Yeah ok…two out of three turned out good.”
“I thought you said you were going to stop that.” A familiar voice commented.
I looked around my living room and saw that my large flat screen TV was on. There was a collection of food scattered on my plush couch and someone had left the fridge open. I was about to say something when I heard the sound of someone eating cereal.
“Hey Alex you ok…”
I turned to look at Mathew. “Hey, what are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be with your grandma?”
Mathew was my brother’s friend, he and Carter had been trapped in the Prometheus Lockdown facility and escaped together. Ever since then Mathew hangs around my brother like he’s got nothing better to do. Mathew stopped chewing for a moment then put a spoonful of cereal in his mouth.
“Grandma moved close to Re gahn. Likes the retirement homes here or something. Wants to make sure my living situation was squared away before doing anything.” Mathew was still chewing when he spoke.
I noticed his arms were bulkier than the last time I saw him. That explained the misplaced weights. Wait,
what living situation he hadn’t seen that much of his grandma since he escaped the Lockdown facility. Most of the time it seems like he crashed here or in hotels…
“You didn’t tell her you’re going to live here did you?”
Mathew pointed his spoon at me, actually he pointed at Carter who had just walked behind me.
“I told her he was living with us. Is that a problem Alexander?”
“I guess not this place is big enough for like twenty people. That’s not the point though hanging out with us isn’t safe and you know that Carter…wait did you just call me Alexander.”
I turned toward Carter and glared at him. His hair was wet and he was wearing blue cloud pajama that looked like something a little kid would wear.
“Don’t call me Alexan…”
“Who beat the pudding out of you?” Carter asked.
I looked at my clothes, now that I was in the light I could see the actual damage and it was worse than I thought. My clothes were cut up pretty bad and there were blood and dirt stains all over. The worst part was how expensive my clothes were. Nothing another whole paycheck couldn’t fix.
“I got into a fight. No one beat the pudding out of me.”
“It’s ok Alex, you can tell me. Big bro will go beat up those mean bullies.” Carter mocked in the most childish voice he could muster.
I glared at him for a moment. “I’m gonna go change. Mathew can stay the night but he should consider staying somewhere else long term.”
I didn’t wait to hear Carter or Mathew’s respond instead I walked to my room which was upstairs. Up here I could see a portion of the warehouse, there were plastic drapes and other things that designated where walls were supposed to be. Since construction wasn’t exactly finished.
“You two are suppose to be super strong remember. Primes that’s as bad as they get right?” Mathew shouted his words.
I got what he was saying but I didn’t think he got what I was saying to him, staying here was dangerous for him. If anything happened to him I couldn’t forgive myself and I knew Carter wouldn’t be able to forgive himself either. If he thinks it’s ok he must not be worried it made me worry less but not enough for it to leave my mind. I rolled my eyes then took off my shirt throwing it on my bed. I needed a shower, some food, then to go to bed in that order. Mathew could stay for now. I just hoped Carter knew what he was doing.
Noble Revelations (Noble Series Book 3) Page 1
