25. Chapter Twenty-Five #4
With a glass of wine in hand, Josh tells her the word sounds like a sneeze.
True to form, Mrs Bellacci ignores him. Before anyone else eats, she serves me a small bowl only and makes a point of shelling any mussels and peeling the shrimp.
Josh, Nishan and Lorenzo look on, amused—they seem to have become friends since the morning meeting—but I shrug.
The taste of pure heaven is more than worth the mollycoddling.
Towards the end of the meal, Romano excuses himself from the table and, after a gentle nod to Lorenzo, calls me away to help him.
Intrigued, I follow him to the kitchen, where Mrs Bellacci stands with her back to the sink, overseeing a guest. Sitting at the kitchen table is a stranger, a teenage boy.
His pale skin contrasts starkly with the explosion of raven hair.
The plain white T-shirt that swamps him is almost the same shade as his skin.
“This is Petey,” says Romano. “While I was flying in with help, Mrs Bellacci did a quick search of the compound and found him climbing out from one of the underground cells.”
The boy appears anxious about the attention, his dark eyes flitting nervously from face to face. He seems alert and alive enough but is seriously malnourished and emaciated, as though a strong wind could blow him out of his seat.
“A Knight?” I ask.
“One of the retired Pawns, we believe. He is a bit of a mystery, but we think he became a research subject. Leblanc told us that most failed progeny were terminated, but one or two were kept alive and used for experiments.”
“The list of atrocities just keeps getting longer,” I hear myself say. “And he was imprisoned there?”
“His home was there, as was yours. He would have been around two or three when everyone else abandoned the site or was eliminated. Sixteen years ago. He managed to hide and has been doing so ever since.”
“How the hell did he manage to survive all this time?”
“You were taught to be resourceful, were you not? The institute was not fully dismantled until around five years after its closure. He told us he survived on whatever he could forage. And there is fresh water in abundance in the highlands. Look, let’s go down to the safe room.
There’s something I need you to see, which may explain better why I think he would make a good addition to your team. ”
“Petey,” says Mrs Bellacci. “I need to speak to these men. Stay here and finish your food—eat up everything—then come down these stairs and find us, okay? I have a treat for you.”
Although he does not smile, the boy’s gaze softens when he listens to Mrs Bellacci. He nods before ignoring us and tucking into his soup bowl.
We take the stairs down to the strong room, with Mrs Bellacci leading the way. We stop for a minute halfway down because I am still a little tired, then continue until we are outside the room. She unlocks the door with a passcode and pushes the heavy portal inwards.
“He created his own name?” I ask as I enter behind Romano.
“No, I think Petey’s a reference to his institute tag. Probably P3 or something similar. At that young age, I imagine it’s about all he could articulate.”
While I am standing in the vault, staring at the wall of security feeds, Romano switches on the overhead neon lighting while Mrs Bellacci pushes buttons on the wall keypad. Above the fizzle of lights, I hear clamps on the security door locking into place.
“Now we wait,” says Romano.
“Wait for what?” I ask, noticing him and Mrs Bellacci staring at the door.
We do not have to stand there for long. Mrs Bellacci puts a finger to her mouth, telling us to be quiet as the hydraulics securing the metal locks sound and disengage. Almost soundlessly, the door swings open. Petey steps inside and stands before us, looking to Mrs Bellacci for her approval.
I stand watching the spectacle, unable to speak.
Lorenzo is skilled at opening locks, but there is no way he could open this door.
Petey does not seem fazed and stands awaiting instructions from Mrs Bellacci.
When I turn to her, she smiles and nods at him before reaching into her apron pocket to pluck out a small apricot.
“You gave him the code?” I ask.
“No,” she replies. “And he has never been down here before. I believe he has developed methods of his own over time. Lorenzo is skilled at opening locks but is a novice compared to this young man.”
“What do you think, Gabriel?” asks Romano. “A good addition to the team?”
“What just happened?”
“I believe this is how he managed to avoid detection for so many years. We would need to go back and examine the site to be sure, but from what he’s told us, we believe he created a series of secret cubbyholes to hide himself away and secure himself with inventive locking systems. Mrs Bellacci was able to locate him only because he wanted to be found.
Imagine having someone like him alongside us, where no locked door is ever an obstacle. ”
“Are there more like him?”
“That much we don’t know. Maybe. But he is young and will need a mentor, Gabriel. Are you up for the challenge?”