The Last Hero (Book 2): Rise of the Ultras Read Online Free Page B

saw the bed erect in the middle of the room. Saw it propped up on that circular metal pole. He saw the bands where their arms were supposed to be chained down. The bright light above, that shone on and off intermittently throughout the day, so they could monitor each individual ULTRA’s reaction to different stimuli.
    “Main power down. Backup gens down. Backup to the backups—”
    “Down,” Mr. Parsons continued.
    Idris blushed a little. He nodded, pushing his glasses back up his face. “So what do we do?”
    Mr. Parsons looked around the vast expanse of Area 64. He’d been the one to come up with this place. During the last Era of the ULTRAs, when the figureheads of the governments wanted the ULTRAs banished from existence, he was the one to propose to the president that they didn’t destroy the ULTRAs. Not entirely. Because they could come in handy one day.
    The world of eight years ago wasn’t ready for ULTRAs, or Heroes, as they then called them, but nobody dared utter now. Not just that, but the ULTRAs weren’t ready for the world of eight years ago. It was a beta test gone horribly wrong. But they’d managed to get them under control, with the indirect assistance of an ULTRA called Orion. They’d managed to end the most immediate threats to existence.
    And now, just like the Russians supposedly had samples of the smallpox virus hiding frozen in labs deep beneath the ground, America had a weapon of its own. An ultimate weapon that it was working on, refining to perfection, until the day came when the world would be ready for ULTRAs all over again.
    But the fact of the matter stood.
    The ULTRAs had escaped.
    Someone had helped them escape.
    “I mean, we can put out a warning,” Idris said, scratching at his nose. “We—we can reach out to the news networks. Broadcast it globally. Tell people to stay in their homes. But that still leaves us with a lot of explaining to do.”
    Mr. Parsons looked over the balcony and waited a few seconds before responding. It was always his way. He was never one to interrupt. Never one to snap. He believed in always carefully considering what a person had to say, what their argument was. His temperament was a strong reason he’d managed to drag himself so far in the government’s Secret Service, he believed.
    He was renowned for his bold but successful decisions. His scary calls that, as terrifying as they sounded, always paid off. Always.
    And as he saw the sequence of events paving out in front of him, he knew what he was going to have to do to end this chaos.
    He knew what risk he was going to have to take.
    Idris kept on mumbling away. “But I’m thinking we should just be honest and sincere. I’m thinking we should just go out there and tell the truth.”
    Mr. Parsons looked into Idris’ eyes. He smiled. “We’ll wake Project Ceta 453.”
    The glazed look that washed over Idris’ face said it all. “But… but we can’t—”
    “I know it’s not ideal,” Mr. Parsons said, a rare moment of interruption to stop Idris getting in a frenzy. “I know it’s not the perfect way to do things. And I know the project still has a lot of work to go.”
    “Too right it has a lot of work to go. We’re risking a catastrophe here.”
    “And what other suggestions do you have?”
    Idris’ mouth hung open. The sheer time that passed told Mr. Parsons he didn’t have an answer.
    They only had once choice.
    The pair of them walked out of Area 64 and made the long trip underground towards the next labs. The secret labs that required an even deeper level of security. The generators and power here were still running. They always would be.
    But even if they weren’t, this place didn’t worry Mr. Parsons quite as much. Because he knew he had the capability to control what was inside it.
    Mr. Parsons walked up to the door and went through the deep security measures, which took a whole fifteen minutes to pass. When he’d finished, he looked around and saw Idris standing there