The Institute (33 page)

But she’s not
the only one. I sit up, briefly taking in the woodlands that
surround us, before looking at the faces staring down at me. The
only explanation why the five people in front of me could possibly
be here – and together – is if I were dreaming… or dead.

Awake, dreaming
or dead, I’m confused, bewildered and disorientated. I am staring
at Ebbodine, at Chad, Paxton the Institute orientation guy, Aunt
Kenna and the fifth and final person. While her hair has greyed
some and she’s a little more wrinkled around the edges, there is no
mistaking her, I am staring at my mother.

She walks over
to me and leans down so she is at my level, her face is as
comforting and as beautiful as I remember. She strokes my cheek as
I hear her voice for the first time in eight years.

“Welcome to the
Resistance.”

******

Thank you for reading
my book! Please let me know what you thought by writing a
review.

Read on for a preview
of the sequel to “The Institute”.

“Resistance” is due for
release in early-mid 2015.

Acknowledgements

I'd first and
foremost like to thank my dear friend, Sarah, for being my best and
worst critic. Without you, I wouldn't have gotten past the first
draft. I certainly wouldn't have thought about actually publishing
my work. So, thank you. I love you, but I hate your red pen.

I also need to
thank the many family and friends who took time out of their lives
to give my book a read and give me constructive feedback. My book
was made better because of you.

I also want to
thank Lori from Wicked Book Covers for finding the perfect Allira
for my cover and doing such a wonderful job at putting it
together.

Lastly, I want
to thank my husband for understanding that sometimes the housework
doesn't get done because my characters won't behave and cooperate
with me. I also need to thank him for bringing a pen and paper into
the bathroom and jotting down ideas for me while I'm in the shower
(the place I seem to get most of my ideas). Your support has
allowed me to chase my dream and I'm so happy I get to spend my
life with you. I love you.

About the Author

Kayla Howarth lives in
Queensland, Australia with her husband and son.

Favourite Kayla at
Smashwords:
https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/KaylaHowarth

Contact Kayla on
Facebook:
https://facebook.com/KaylaHowarthTheInstituteSeries

Resistance

The Institute Series
Book #2

By Kayla Howarth

Out mid 2015

Chapter
One

“Today’s the
big day,” Drew says excitedly, standing at the entrance to my
bedroom, holding a cup of coffee.

“Yeah it is,” I
muster.

Living with my
ex-boyfriend was weird in the beginning, but I’ve become accustomed
to having him wake me each day in a similar manner. He brings me a
cup of coffee and I don’t berate him. It seems to work. I’m still
getting used to pretending to be married to him though.

I sit up in
bed, my hand reaching for the coffee.

“It’s your
first arrest, you should be excited,” he says, walking towards me
to pass me the cup.

I can’t help
but roll my eyes. How he finds arresting people – for a defect that
he also has – exciting is beyond me. I do it because I have to, not
because I want to.

We’ve been
investigating our target, a sixteen year old named Licia for three
months. We lost them when we started in Rockford but it only took
us a few weeks to track the Johns family to the next town over.
They weren’t exactly the most resourceful when it came to
fleeing.

I got a job as
a waitress where Licia works after school and on weekends, as a way
of getting close to her. I fought with Drew about me being the one
to take point on the investigation but as he so eloquently put it:
becoming friends with her would be much less hurtful than him
hitting on her, ultimately breaking her heart when she is arrested.
That’s a scenario I’m all too familiar with; it’s how he was able
to arrest me almost six months ago.

It’s amazing
that it has only been six months. I’ve been on the outside for the
same amount of time as I was imprisoned by the Institute, but I
feel like I have lived three lifetimes since being arrested. The
naïve school girl I once was is long gone. No longer do I trust so
easily, nor will I ever again. As it turns out, Drew isn’t the only
one I shouldn’t have trusted.

“We’ve got time
for a run, if you’re up for it?” Drew asks.

“Sounds good,”
I say as I reach the bottom of my coffee cup, disappointed there’s
nothing left.

Drew leaves as
I drag myself out of bed. I like running with Drew but I’ll never
admit that to him. He’s so competitive, it always pushes me hard. I
don’t even care that he always wins.

I get dressed,
lace up my shoes and grab my hooded jacket on the way out. It’s
spring, but the breeze still has bite to it. My face stings as it
hits the fresh air outside. I love the feeling of just setting out,
on our own, and not having to think about suspects, leads or
blowing our cover. We only have one thing to focus on and that’s
the sound of our feet beating against the pavement. We run five
kilometres from our house, down to the harbour, and then turn back.
By the time I reach the harbour, my mind is clear and I feel
refreshed and ready for the day. I can do this.

The sun warms
my back while the chilling breeze cools my front. My lungs sting as
I start to tire and I feel I’m gasping for air. I lick my cracked
lips as my dry, scratchy throat craves water, but I push myself to
keep going, breathing heavier and heavier with each footstep. I
push through the pain, I want to defeat it.

I get an extra
energy boost when we’re almost home and I actually think I might
beat Drew for once. I try to get in front of him but he nudges me
out of the way with his elbow. I cut him off again and stick my
foot in front of his, tripping him over. He grabs my ankle as he
falls and we both crash to the grass on the lawn in front of our
house. That isn’t going to stop me though. I get on my hands and
knees and start crawling towards the front door. I’m going to win.
He crawls after me and drags me backwards by my leg. I start
laughing as I try to grip onto the grass but it’s no use, I just
keep grabbing fistfuls of it.

Our laughter
and fun is interrupted when I hear a voice coming from the front
door of the house.

“I was
beginning to worry about you two,” Lynch says sternly. “I thought I
was going to have to track you. Hurry up and get inside, we have to
get started.”

Just like that,
my feelings of being calm and ready turn to panic and worry. No –
this is what I have been training for. This is what I have to do to
protect my brother, Shilah. I can do it. This has been my mantra
for at least three months, whenever doubt started to cloud my
thoughts. When that hasn’t worked, I focus on knowing that once
Licia is arrested, I get to go back to the Institute and see my
brother again. I can do this.

I have a quick
shower and get dressed into my waitress uniform, tight black pants
and a black collared shirt. I don’t know how I am meant to make an
arrest in this; it’s not the most flexible of materials and
constricts my movements. I walk into the kitchen to get another
coffee, and Drew is at the dining table eating breakfast.

“Where’s
Lynch?” I ask.

“She went to
meet up with the others in the arrest team. I told her we would be
right behind her so you better drink up, fast.”

“I’m actually
surprised to see her here. I didn’t realise she was an agent. I
didn’t even think she was Defective.”

Drew looks up
at me from his plate. “She’s not Defective. She’s one of the few
normal agents. You didn’t think every agent was Defective did
you?”

“Well, yeah, I
kind of did.”

“Brookfield
wouldn’t allow a Defective person in such a high position. All of
our supervisors, commanding officers like Lynch, they’re all
‘normals’, but none of them work in the field. Lynch is in charge
of arrests – it’s really the only action she sees.”

“So she was
there for my arrest?”

Drew ignores my
question. “You know what you have to do today, yeah?” he asks
me.

I sigh, “Yes, I
know what to do. Get Licia out of the restaurant, where you and the
rest of the team will be waiting.”

“Here, take
this,” he says, passing me a knife. “You don’t have anything to
protect you other than your hand-to-hand combat training, and I’ve
taken that class, I know how thorough they are. Or aren’t, I should
say.”

It’s true; the
self-defence classes they run at the Institute are pretty poor. I
spent most of my time trying to avoid getting beaten by a fifteen
year old girl – my assigned sparring partner. I was just lucky to
have met Chad, a fellow agent-in-training. He showed me how to
really defend myself.

Come to think
of it, none of the classes I took at the Institute helped me to
prepare for living as an agent in the real world. I guess they run
the classes to try and boost everyone’s confidence, make them feel
important. But I know now, we’re not important; we’re
expendable.

I take the
knife and place it in my back pocket of my pants. I hope I remember
that it’s there, I can just see myself sitting down and accidently
stabbing myself in the butt.

We begin our
walk to our rendezvous point, which is a van parked a few streets
away from the restaurant where Licia and I work. I am surprised to
see who the others are. Besides Lynch, there’s Eugene – who Chad
and I referred to as Jack during our time at the Institute because
of how much of a jackass he is. There’s also the guy with glasses
who was at my first interrogation and at my field test; I don’t
know his name. There are two others I haven’t met before, a small
built woman with long black hair, and an extremely tall, lanky man
with slightly greying hair. The four of them are wearing black
uniforms with protective vests.

“Okay, let’s
get started,” Lynch says. “Drew and Allira, you already know Eugene
and Leo,” she says, pointing to Jack and the guy with the glasses.
“And this is Bek and Costello.” We nod hello to each other but no
words are spoken. “So, are we ready?” Lynch asks excitedly, like
her peppiness is meant to motivate us. No one actually answers her
but she continues to talk anyway. “Allira, it’s your job to get our
target out the back. That’s where we will take her out. Eugene,
Drew and Leo, you will approach from the front, Bek and I will take
a side each. Costello will remain with the van, ready for us when
we get her.”

I am fitted
with a microphone which transmits audio to the team’s earpieces.
They will be able to hear when I have managed to get Licia outside.
Drew starts gearing up, putting on a protective vest and arming
himself with a gun, matching the others. I don’t get a gun or a
vest as I’m going to lure Licia out. I suddenly start wishing Chad
was here with me, I could borrow his protective force field ability
if this arrest goes awry.

Thanks to
months of lunch break training, in between the classes the
Institute ran, I’ve gotten a good hold of my ability – both of
them. When I touch Drew, I am able to amplify his ability almost to
the point of him becoming a telepath instead of an Empath. He can’t
hear word for word, but he can pick up on key words and work from
that. I am able to borrow that power too, so I can hear what Drew
hears and what he thinks. The good thing about that is, Drew
doesn’t know that I am able to borrow his ability and, thanks to
Chad, I am able to block Drew from listening in on me.

Chad grew up
with his cousin Tate, a telepath I met during my stay in the Crypt;
a part of the Institute they don’t like to tell people about. It’s
where they keep the un-cooperative ones. Tate chooses to stay
there, he could do what we do if he really wanted to, but he
doesn’t want to live with the guilt of doing this. I didn’t either
and had already accepted that I was going to live imprisoned for
the rest of my life, until they found out what I can do – well half
of what I can do. Tate advised me to keep the fact I have a double
ability to myself, unless I wanted to become a lab rat for the
Institute’s research department. Having an ability is rare, having
a double ability is ridiculously rare. Only Tate and Chad know, and
I work hard to keep it that way.

“You’ll be
fine,” Drew says, putting his arm around my shoulders. I pull away
from him, annoyed. Even though I have learnt to keep most of my
feelings from him, he can still pick up on some things, like right
now – he can sense I’m freaking out about this arrest.

I’m worried
about how it will go, I’m worried about it failing but I think I’m
more worried about it being successful. I know what awaits Licia
once she is taken into custody and she’s a nice girl; I would
actually consider her a friend. At least we know what Licia can do,
so maybe it won’t be as bad for her as it was for me when I was
first arrested.

I discovered
her ability after spending weeks profiling her actions. I was
following her home one day when she thought she was alone and she
disappeared into thin air. At first I thought she could teleport
like my best friend Ebbodine, but according to my training the
Institute gave me, her personality didn’t match that kind of
profile. I spent the next few days doing the same thing, just
following her and watching from afar. I got pretty good at getting
fairly close to her without her being aware of me. After sharing my
notes and observations with Drew, we suspected she could project a
secondary physical form of herself. This was confirmed one day
while I was at work with Licia. Drew went to her house to snoop for
further evidence and he found her, her actual self, asleep on the
couch.