To unlock the door…
Deacon sat behind his desk as Drake led the small cub into his office. Not wanting to appear as intimidating, he rose while the boy took a seat across from him and then rounded the desk. He leaned on the edge and glanced down at the boy before casting a glance at Drake—who’d moved back and leaned up against the wall, watching the cub.
He didn’t have much experience with children. Given that his mate was pregnant, he needed to learn—and fast.
Cal had been worried about this one, but Deacon couldn’t read any negative emotions radiating from the child. “Good morning,” he said.
“Good morning,” the boy said solemnly.
Deacon spun a file that was open on his desk and took one last peek, searching for anything that could give him a starting off point with the boy. There was nothing. Closing the file, he turned his gaze back to the cub. “PZ2-101, do you have something you’d rather us call you?”
“PZ2-101 is sufficient. Or you could call me 101 for ease.”
Sufficient. Not a term he’d expect to come from a boy of five or six. “101, it is.”
Deacon tested the edges of the cub’s mind and struggled to get in. He glanced at Drake and saw a frown on the smoke dragon’s face. Was he having the same trouble?
“Why are you trying to probe my mind?” the cub asked without any emotion to his voice.
It was Deacon’s turn to frown. He glanced quickly at Drake before looking back to the child. “I can understand putting up walls… Project Zed was all you’ve known and now we’ve taken you away from that. It’s frightening to be here. To let us get close.”
“No, it’s not frightening.”
Deacon watched the detached child, growing more concerned by the minute. “Why is it not frightening?”
“You don’t plan to hurt us.”
“We don’t?” Of course they didn’t, but he wanted to hear the child’s reasoning.
The boy lowered his head and began to move his fingers—as if he were counting something. “You want to protect us from an assumed threat—General Lore and his scientists—but they’re no more a threat to us than you are. They want us as safe as you do.”
Deacon cast a casual glance around them, trying to see what the boy was counting. He couldn’t come up with anything, besides the pens in his cup. But the boy was looking down, so that didn’t make sense, either. “Is that so?”
“Of course,” the cub answered.
“But what of those Lore planned to use you against?”
There was an almost imperceptible twitch in one of the cub’s eyes. “I know of no such plans.”
“You’re a shifter. A shifter like myself and the others here on this base. Eventually, General Lore would have used you to hunt men like me and kill them. We freed you to prevent that from happening,” Deacon paused, waiting to see if there was any other reaction from the boy, but there wasn’t. “Do you understand that?”
“Yes.”
“And you still think General Lore wants you safe?”
“Many of us are unable to shift, and those who are—they haven’t grown into their full strength yet. So we are safe. For the time being. I didn’t say that wouldn’t change in time.”
Deacon knew the boy sitting before them was an enigma. His mind was strong—too strong for him to only be a bear, yet the DNA test showed nothing else in his blood. He was cold; devoid of emotion—after being raised in a laboratory, they couldn’t exactly expect more. Yet the other children—all three dozen others—none had been like him. Many of the older boys had seemed distant, but they’d shown at least a little fear in the depths of their eyes.
This cub had none.
Not that he wanted to instill fear, but given their situation, he expected the children to feel concern.
Deacon didn’t like the idea of toying with a child’s emotions. But if the men on his base were in danger, he had to prod. He flipped open the file. “We tested your DNA.” He shifted his gaze from the sheet of paper on top to the cub. “Your father is on this base.”
The twitch to the eye reappeared. “I know.”
Deacon lifted a brow. “You know?”
“I spoke to him in the rec room. He played a game of chess with 102 and lost. He doesn’t know how to play very well.”
Deacon nodded, stunned. “Yes. How did you know?”
“The same way he knew I was his. Scent.”
“He told you he knew you were his?”
“His emotional responses told me. His heartbeat quickened. He began to sweat. Emotion grew in his tone. He was nervous, although why, I don’t know. I believe I scared him.”
Deacon stared at the boy a moment. “Do you… do you feel any emotion?”
“No,” the boy said.
Deacon met Drake’s stare. He turned back to the boy. “Would you like to meet your father?”
“I’ve already met him.”
“True, but… would you like to see him again?”
The boy lifted his stare, cocking his head slightly. “For what purpose?”
“He’s your family. Your sire. One of them, at least. You have a bond, that of family.”
“I do not require family,” the boy said. But it was there again—that barely perceptible twitch.
“You’ve never had one before,” Drake said from behind them. “Sometimes they can be overrated—but having a family can be a wonderful thing.”
“How so?” 101 asked, glancing over one shoulder at Drake.
“Dads teach us things about life. They have experience with the world that you don’t, and they can share that knowledge. Sometimes it makes it easier to get through life to have people who love you on your side.”
“He just met me, so he can’t love me.”
Drake blew out a breath. “I can’t speak for him, but I’m sure he cares what happens to you, at least.”
The boy was silent, his fingers moving a little faster.
“What is it that you’re doing there?” Deacon asked, pointing to the cub’s hand.
“Counting. You have 16,356 holes in the tiles above.”
Deacon lifted his stare at the ceiling tiles, frowning. He lowered his gaze and eyed the boy. “You weren’t looking up at them.”
“I did. Once,” the boy said, finally putting his hand down. “Are we done now?”
“You didn’t answer my question about your father,” Deacon said.
“I do not require a father,” the boy replied. He scooted off the chair and looked at Deacon. “But if he has a desire to see me, I will not refuse it.”
Deacon nodded. “Good to know. You can get back to your puzzles.”
“I’ve already completed the ones here in the facility twice. Are there any others?”
Deacon chuckled slightly. “I’ll look into getting you more.”
“Thank you,” the boy said.
Drake followed the boy out, leaving Deacon alone with his thoughts. He returned to his chair and looked back over the file. A couple of minutes later, Drake knocked on his door.
“Come in—and close the door.”
Drake followed his order and took a seat on the chair the boy had just abandoned. “You get anything from him?”
“Not one bit. You?”
“For a second, I thought I heard a voice whispering in his mind, but it was so faint, I can’t be sure it was,” Drake said.
“More than I got,” Deacon closed the file again, frustrated they’d gotten nowhere. “Can he see you while you’re invisible?” The smoke dragon had already proven himself quite handy to have around.
“I’m not sure. 102 can.”
“I’ve noticed those two play with each other a lot.”
Drake shook his head. “They don’t play together. They’re near each other, but always playing individually. Sometimes 102 will entice someone to play a game of chess, but 101 is always at the table with him. If one is hungry, they both eat.”
“So, even if you do get close to him, 102 might rat you out.”
“Exactly,” Drake answered. “I can keep an eye on him. Do my best to not appear to be spying—since I get the feeling that’s what you want me to do.”
“I do,” Deacon answered. “Try to stay clear of 102—and watch his every move. And watch the two cubs together. There might be something there.”
“I’m on it.”
Deacon leaned back in his chair as Drake left his office. Cal had been right to be concerned. The cub knew something…
And for the safety of the base and all of Bear Mountain, he was going to find out what it was.