The Axelridge Series Book 4 Griff's Red Card

GRIFFIN

“Noah, make sure that buckles tight.” Peter yells as he helps Noah on with the lowering harness in the helicopter.

I lean to Noah from my seat. “If ya feel any bit strange, ya pull the rope, yeah? Anything at all. The camera on yer chest will record the lot, so don’t block it. When we lower ya, we gonna dip ya in for a minute. Not a second sooner. We need to be sure. Got it?”

“Uh…Yeah…” Noah turns to Peter. “You sure this is tight enough?”

Peter nods. “Perfectly safe. I use this gear all the time.”

Noah blows out a breath and signals he’s ready.

The pilot gives the thumbs up and Peter opens the sliding helicopter door. The cabin fills with wind from the blades and Peter’s blonde hair is blown over. He squints his blue eyes in the wind as he gives Noah final instructions.

“Don’t kick or shift your weight! Hang onto the rope and try not to twist yourself! Don’t panic! The waters going to push on you, but you aren’t in any danger! We will be watching from up here and if there’s any signs of struggling, we will pull you up, ok?!” Peter tries to keep Noah’s attention as he stares at the large pulsing hole.

He swallows. “Is it too late to back out?”

“Yes!” I yell back.

“Ok. Here goes nothing.”

30 feet above the water, Noah steps onto the helicopters landing foot. Peter helps him and I snap a tether to the safety harness Peter’s wearing.

“TAKE MY HAND AND LOWER YOURSELF INTO A SIT!” Peter yells over the noise.

Noah plants both his feet and grabs Peter’s hand. He slowly leans back and sits as I tend to the rope.

“OK! GRAB THE FOOT AND LOWER YOURSELF DOWN FURTHER. DROP YOUR LEGS, BUT DON’T SWING. YOU’LL KNOCK YOUR TEETH OUT.” Peter helps him to grab the foot then slide his legs off while holding his body to the foot.

“I THINK MY TEETH ARE THE LEAST OF MY WORRIES RIGHT NOW! DOES HE HAVE TO BE SO FUCKING HIGH?!” Noah scowls.

“YES! HE DOESN’T WANT TO GET HIT BY THE WATER!” Peter responds.

“NOAH, BE BRAVE, YA? YA GOT THIS, LAD!” I encourage.

I cam see him chanting, ‘Be brave' to himself over and over as I begin to release the tension and he starts to drop.

Peter rushes to the laptop and turns it on. He pulls up the body camera. “Noah. Move your arm. it’s covering the camera.”

“Oh, shit. Sorry.” He mumbles.

He moves his arm and the image of the city comes on screen.

“Noah, 20 feet.” Peter advises as he reads the outputs from the drop.

“This doesn’t feel like 20 feet!” Noah barks.

“Lad. You’re 6'10. Surly, ya can’t be afraid of heights.” I chuckle.

“Shut up, Griffin!” He yells back.

“Alright. Don’t twist up yer knickers. I’m just pulling ya leg.” I laugh.

“That’s a long leg.” Peter meets my eye as I nod in agreement.

“I’m not laughing, Griff!” He growls.

“Just concentrate on the task, boy. It'll be over in a wee minute.” I say back.

The image lowers and the scope of the waters movement comes into view. It’s fast. It would be white capped, but it’s more like bubbling over. There’s a power here like nothing I’ve ever seen the likes of.

“Ok, Noah. You’re at the surface.” Peter informs.

“NO SHIT!” He yells. The camera looks down and his sneakers are hitting the water.

“Noah, breathe in and out four deep, cleansing breaths then take in one big breath and hold it. We going to submerge you.” Peter says.

Noah’s camera shows he does what’s instructed.

“Going down in 3…2…1…”

He nods to me and I lower the cable slowly. I pray to the gods that he will be alright, crossing my chest as I do.

The camera image is jostled about as the water hits Noah’s body. He’s pulled and pushed in all directions as the waters currents rushes past him. You can barely see anything in the waters turbulence.

As Noah is booted around, we hear his struggling muffled voice over the microphone.

“What's happening?” I walk over sit beside Peter.

“Nothing. Just the water beating the shit out of him.” Peter motions a hand to the screen. “We should pull him…”

“Wait!” I point to the screen.

The water moves faster and starts to swirl around Noah’s body. His legs and arms are thrown around in the spin and we hear him struggling to keep it together.

The water starts to bubble in a cloud and glow gold. Noah screams under water and the computer screen is blasted with light.

“NOAH! I’M COMING, LAD!” I rush to the winch and reverse it.

I look down and the surface above him is covered in fast moving, white bubbles as his brown hair starts to breach the surface.

He take a huge gasp of air and shake his head as he rises up. “HOLY FUCK!!” He yells.

“HOLD ON!”

“HEY!!” Noah frantically points to the water.

My jaw drops as not one or two, but six heads breach the surface, all looking like Noah. They gasp for air, spin around in confusion and fight the currents.

Noah reaches out just as his backside leaves the waves. “GRAB MY HAND!”

“HELP ME!”

“HELP!!”

“WHAT THE FUCK?!”

“QUIT SHIFTING YOUR WEIGHT!” I lean out the door and yell as his seat starts to swing. He’s reaching for the clones. “NOAH! LEAVE THEM BE!!”

“COME ON! I CAN SAVE YOU!” He reaches out to the more.

“NOAH! NO!” Peter joins me at the door and hollers down to him.

Two grab onto Noah’s legs and start to climb up his body. He tries the hold the rope and push them down. “NO! JUST HOLD MY HAND!”

“GET ME OUT OF THIS DAMN WATER!!”

“LET GO!!”

“NOAH!” Peter leans out the door. “KICK THEM OFF!”

“BUT…”

“JUST DO IT, YA STUPID ASS!” I yell even louder.

The clones swarm him and try to get use him to get out of the water as he rises more. I have to pause the wench when the helicopter is jolted off course. Noah is swinging like a worm on a hook under us.

“Shit.” Peter grumbles as we hold on while the helicopter cabin rocks then steadies itself.

“NOAH!! THEY'LL BLEEDING CRASH US!” I yell down.

“I'M SORRY!” He cries out and kicks one off. It falls down to the water and breaks apart once he hits the surface. Water splashes and the body is no more.

“Wha? These are even more unstable.” I turn to Peter who’s just as confused.

One grabs for Noah’s neck and tries to reach for the rope. Noah punches him in the face and he falls, taking another one with him. They join the holes pulsing waves.

I start the winch again as Noah struggles with the three that are hanging off him like barrel monkeys.

One clone was hanging off the waist of another one. The first had Noah’s thigh and Noah punched him in the head. He burst into water on the impact and the second fell to his death.

The last one manages to grab his shirt. “You need me.” He snarls through the mic on the body cam.

“I-I’m sorry.” Noah says in a very apologetic tone.

He throws a hand over the clones face and shoves him off. The clone screams as he falls to his watery grave.

Dripping wet, we raise Noah back up to the helicopter. Peter grabs his arm and pulls into the cabin.

Breathing heavy, he slams himself into a seat and leans back. “I think I got the cool stuff out of my system now.” He pants. “That’s not safe.”

“No, shit.” I mutter.

He scrubs a hand down his face and shakes his wet head.

“THE EQUIPMENT, YA DOLT!” I bellow.

“Oh…oops.” He grins.

‘Peter?’

Peter goes to the laptop. “Go ahead.”

‘Peter, we saw video.’ Ricky says from the Comms tent.

“Yeah. We're going to need a plan B.” Peter rubs his nape and glances at me.

‘I think we may have that plan…or at least a way to develop one. Head on back.’

“Copy that.” Peter says.

The helicopter turns around as I shut the door and take a seat next to Noah. I lean back and roll my head to him. “Ye alright, laddie?”

He shrugs and weakly wrings out his t-shirt. “I wish I could have saved one, ya know. It would’ve been nice to have a brother again.”

I nod. “Aye. I keep forgetting what it must be like for you to have lost yer twin.”

“It’s kind of hard when you share a face and he can’t answer back the way you want, but I deal with it. It just…this cloning thing kind of made it feel like a second chance to be brothers again.” He glances at me with a small smile.

“I can see that, Noah, but these clones, they don’t belong, lad. It’s why they break. You’d only be putting yourself through more heartache.” I study his face. I can see his pain.

I’ve never known people quite so special as Scott and Noah. They’re a fun pair of boys. Talent a plenty. Scott was a fine lad. Give ya the shirt off his back, he would. When Alistair killed him we were all devastated. Eddie, the worst. Noah forgave him. Never blamed him once for it. He doesn’t even fault Brock, but that’s Noah’s heart. It’s always in the right place, even if he were in the face of Satan himself.

“Hey, the last clone said I needed him. What do you think that means?” Noah lifts a brow to me.

“I don’t know except that they seem to be programmed with the instinct to help us. Mine wouldn’t leave me alone for a second. If what I think is true, they’re for raising an army, then it would seem to make sense that the clone fights by its originals side. The problem is, it seems like that’s the only thing they’re programmed to do. All the clones we met so far seemed confused. Like they didn’t know what to do outside of the originals personality and memories. As I think on it, it’s probably why the riots started.” I glance at him then look out the window as we approach base camp.

“You think they wanted to start a fight?” Noah questions.

“Or thought we were an enemy they had to fight.” I arch a brow and lean to him.

“Makes sense. I imagine the originals would probably feel the same way. What was strange was the look he gave me was like I was betraying him or something.” He turns his eyes to me and tilts his head.

“Mine did the same. In fact, mine acted like I’d be making a whopper of a mistake if I didn’t let him help. His mistake was thinking that.” I elbow his arm with a chuckle.

‘MAINLAND! TWO MINUTES!’ The pilot informs.

The helicopter lands and we disembark. When we enter the tent, everyone is huddled and talking at once.

In the center of the circle, I see Blade and Bobby.

“Blade?” I question as I approach.

“Hey, Griff.” Blade lifts a hand to greet.

“Blade, we shouldn’t.”

My eyes flick to Bobby who’s facing his brother. “What's going on, Bobby?”

“Hi, Griff.” He glances at me and turns back to Blade.

“It has to come out sometime, Bobby. Obviously, it’s no longer a secret. What we know could save Axelridge.” Blade crosses his arms and leans to his brother.

“What are you two on about?” I ask my brows cinch together. “What are you even doing here?”

“We got a call that a lot of the inmates escaped Enforcer custody during the rescue transfer from Axelridge Prison.” Bobby starts.

“Oh…” My brows raise and I turn to Finn who nods in confirmation.

“One of those was Brock.” Blade finishes.

“Shit.” My jaw falls slack and I search the room.

“Just fucking fabulous.” Jax growls and shakes his head.

“We don’t have anything to worry about as long as Alistair stays in Eddie.” Finn side eyes Jax.

“IF he stays.” Jax gives him a look back.

“Anyway, while we were asking about it, we began to hear the talk about what’s going on in Axelridge.” Blade looks around the room. “We think we know why.”

“We already know why. The bloody waters cloning.” I tilt my head and kick out a leg.

“No, we know why it’s doing it in the first place.” Blade points to his and his brother as he stares into my soul and I feel his confidence in what he says.

“Bobby, you look like yer about puke.” I say as I look him over.

“It’s because what we’re about to do makes me feel sick.” He turns to Blade. “Just remember, granddad told it to us under confidence. You’re disrespecting him and the spirits, right now.”

“I'm sure granddad would do the same to save lives.” Blade grumbles.

“Don’t say I didn’t warn you.” Bobby turns away and walks around the circle. Clearly, this must be big if Bobby is that perturbed.

Blade sits down at a long table they put out for the Alphas and we all take the seating provided.

His head floats around the room. “What I’m about to tell you has been a close guarded secret among my people for centuries. No one has uttered a word about this since it was covered up. The original holder of the secret didn’t want it forgotten in case it was discovered so, it passed down through generations of a select bloodline.”

“Yours.” Finn states.

Blade nods. “Yes. Now, this secret is so powerful that when I do share it with you, there may be consequences to that.”

“What kind of consequences?” Jake asks.

Blade raises a brow. “Vengeful spirit kind.”

We all glance around with the same question on our faces.

What the hell does that mean?