Betraying the Dragon
By LTalbot
When James woke from his coma, three years had passed. But adjusting had always been his strong point, and within two weeks of his release from Mercy Memorial Hospital his life had already started rebuilding. The one person he had trusted had betrayed him, though, and now his trust was beyond repair. Even his sister, the only family he had left, was not safe to trust in his eyes. He had only one objective- revenge.
Slipping into his house, he grabbed his keys off the table and headed for his workshop in the basement. Finally he reached the locked door, which was somewhat rusted over from not being opened in the time he was incapacitated.
The door swung open, and he slid inside the dark room, his fingers sliding along the wall, searching for a light switch. A thick layer of dust coated everything, everything except the shelf he had installed last night. Finally, he found the switch, and no longer in the dark, he stepped briskly over to the shelf and slid his hand underneath to the hidden knob that opened the panel. The shelf flipped into the wall, and a handle was revealed. He unlocked the door that now could be seen, and pulled it open, bringing into view a dimly lit room.
In the center of the room was a long table with books stacked on it all the way up to eye level. Along the walls, weapons of all sorts were on racks, their blades and shafts shining. He had spent the last week polishing the rust off, and tomorrow he would begin practicing with them. But today, his interest was in the books on the table.
For two years before Victor betrayed him, he had been working for Chiron Industries, a company that manufactured new software of all different types. But his department, rather than manufacturing, was Research and Development. And he, Elise, and Victor had been on the highest security clearance project. He had to get that information back, before it was put to use. After all, the Doomsday Software was probably the most dangerous thing ever created- one sequence of keystrokes would be enough to set all of the network on a path towards destruction.
Unlike many years ago, when the world was ruled by several superpowers, now all of the countries were equalized by the demilitarization of nuclear weapons. But this software would give whoever had it the advantage, upgrading all of the computers to a much higher level than those of the other countries.
It was extremely frustrating, that he couldn't go back to the lab to pick up the little research that Victor hadn't managed to steal. When he had spoken with Elise last, she had told him that Project Doom had been cancelled, and all of the data deleted. Apparently the owner of Chiron Corporation decided it wasn't worth it if the information fell into the wrong line of people.
"Damn you, Victor." James spluttered under his breath as several of the books slid off the table. Because of him, James was going to have to research everything all over again. "Why, damn it, why?" A tear slid down from his eye for the first time since he was just a boy, and he slammed his fist into the wall as pent-up emotion drove him to his knees.
It was more than just the research-he knew that now. He had trusted Victor, and the boy had betrayed him. Betrayed his best friend. Betrayed his father.
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