Chapter 164
THEON
I have travelled a lot in my life, from country to country and from city to city but never have I been to the East Kingdom and that….baffled me.
Aside from the fact that one needed military cleareance to get in with my status, I knew nothing about the place.
Last I heard, it used to be a kingdom, then the civil war happened and it became..forgotten. No one talked about it anymore. No one knew what went on there and it seems today, it seems I am about to find out.
Entering into the stratosphere, I expected to see ruins but to my surprise, I saw cities and what seemed to be a thriving kingdom. Miro and I exchanged a glance, then I looked at my father, sitting beside Dutton and caught his smirk..
“Surprised?” He asked with an air of arrogance. “I was going to show you this place immediately after you chose the new set of trainees for the Academy. His face soured. “Then you decided to involve women and brought on that…girl.” His lips curled in disgust as his gaze drifted away in thought. “Started disobeying me from nowhere. Giving me attitude. Contradicting your King.” He muttered more to himself than to me. “Couldn’t trust you anymore.”
I stared at his pathetic face, “So what changed?”
He looked at me, his green eyes shining. “What changed is the fact that I am being pushed to a corner and I need you to see things my way. I have come too far, for some girl to destroy everything I have built!”
The helicopter landed and all of us alighted. Then my brother and I bent low, as we walked away, totally deafened by the sound of the rotating blades.
Parked in the distance was a black limo and after we all entered, the car began to move. Soon we went from open fields, to farmlands where I saw people working under supervision. Afer that, we moved into a city and when I saw huge machinery and unhappy people standing in line to clock into work, that’s when it dawned on me that this was not a kingdom.
This was an industry. A factory. The people here are slaves.
I turned to my father who had just ended a call. “What happened to the East?”
My father looked out the window, his face carrying that smugness again. “A lot happened but that doesn’t matter. What matters now is that this is the seat of all Elite wealth. Any family top tier in wealth has one or two business ventures here. Our family does, and so do the Blackwells, Caines, Cresswells and the rest.”
I frowned. It doesn’t make any sense. How does a whole Kingdom become subject to wealthy families of the West?
“Is there a King or a royal family?”
My father gave me a look. “Why do you concern yourself with that? Like I said earlier, that does not matter anymore. What matters is that we and other Elite families own this place now. We are the rulers and what we say goes.”
Miro and I shared another glance again.
“Something is fishy.” Miro stated in my head.. “And somehow, I think it is linked to Ryn’s inheritance.”
“Do you think Jack was lending Ryn’s properties to Dad?”
“Possibly.” Miro answered. “I won’t be surprised if they had properties in the east.”
I see. I’ll need to talk to Ryn as soon as possible and get a look over her documents. If she wants my help, I am ready to hir lawyers for her and help her in any way I can.
874%
“We really need to help–Ryn, Miro mindlinked. “Cause if Dad is going to the extent of showing us this place, then he will do whatever it takes to prevent Ryn from getting her inheritance.”
“I’m with you.” I replied. “Let’s see what he has in store.”
About an hour plus later, we were parked in front of a big building with the name ASHLABS LTD. on it.
Going in, we appeared in a fancy lobby and afterwards we followed my father and his men into an elevator.
Now instead of going up, we went down and again, my brother and I shared a meaningful glance. We travelled for about five minutes before the doors opened to reveal what I could call the biggest lab I had ever seen.
Everything was either white or silver in color and as I looked down I found various people in white lab coats working at their desks.
“Welcome to AshLabs where we do our best to improve the were world.” My father said with his arms spread out over the entire place. Going down some stairs, we began to journey through some hallways, and to my surprise, I discovered some men standing in solitary cells, peeping from the rectangular hole in their cells.
The moment they saw me, their eyes hardened and they began to hiss and mutter under their breaths I had no idea why but as I walked by dozens of these cells I began to wonder who they were.
We followed him down the hallway into a large space and that’s when I saw another thing that put me in shock.
Mutants.
These were the ones that seem to have been captured by us and our team. These creatures were held captive in various ways while some were dead, and openly dissected on large operating tables.
“This is project zero.” My father said as he ventured deeper into the open space. “This is where I have been trying to create the perfect super serum that will make super soldiers.”
Super what?This material belongs to NôvelDrama.Org.
The question was right on the tip of my tongue but I couldn’t get to ask it. Instead, my focus was drawn to a man shown to us on a large screen. He was a very big guy who could run at a speed like mine and even faster. He seemed to be doing some variations of tests to test his strength and abilities.
When he carried a whole car above his head, I sent a look Miro’s way but my brother was too fixated on the screen like he was trying to figure out something.
“I am happy to say after years of trial and error, the super serum became a success.” My father beamed. “Dominic Tarrent and the entire Kingdom of the North will no longer be able to stand before us and we will subdue them like we did the East.”
Everything finally made sense.
“So the men on death row were your experiment subjects.” I stated and my father nodded with pride like he did a smart thing.
“Is that not the man who beat his wife and kids to death?” Miró suddenly asked, his voice laced with anger. “The one I fought one time you had a meeting with your circle?”
My father’s smile faltered. “If you’re worried about him harming anyone again, you don’t need to worry. He’s perfectly
under control.”
“He should be in jail! Being punished for his crimes!” Miro raised his voice. “I thought that was what I was doing? I thoug by winning I was sending them right back to jail!”
“Look.” My father cut in. “I understand your grievances but scapegoats had to be used to test this new serum before it
2/3
given to the Elite Force”
ti
T
“Whose Elite Force?” I asked coldly, catching my father’s attention.
“What do you mean? Of course the one under you.”
“You never discussed this with me.”
Q
ས ༤ 74%
My father began to look frustrated. “Eventually, I was going to but since things have changed I had to show you this groundbreaking event first.”
“What do you mean by things have changed?”
My father exhaled hard and wiped his sweaty forehead with a handkerchief. “Ashlabs belongs to Ashmore Holdings and if Ryn gets her inheritance, all this groundbreaking research will be affected.”
All I could do was blink, then I took deep breaths to calm my anger. “So let me get this straight, you’ve been using Ryn’s father’s lab to create your super serum?”
Before my father could answer, Miro cut in. “Nah.” Miro said, folding his arms across his chest. “I think there’s more to it, otherwise he would have easily moved to a new building.”
I looked at my father who suddenly seemed red in the face. “Is that true?”
“Well…” My father ran a hand through his hair. “The entire research was being funded with none other than Ashmore money. If Ryn finds out, she can sue us and the other families for every single penny and if she wins, not only will we lose rights to the serum, but we might all go bankrupt.”