Indoctrination: The New Recruit, #2

By Elise Abram

Branded the Bay Street Bomber after getting involved with a gang of eco-terrorists, Bethany flees with Cain to Niagara Falls. Confined to Jo-Jo's compound, Bethany longs to do nothing more than see the falls and spend time with Cain, but he's always off campus, doing Jo-Jo's bidding. The more Bethany fights her situation, the further she is implicated in Jo-Jo's crimes. It's not until one of Jo-Jo's kids disappears that she realizes she must escape if she is to survive.

Who, if anyone, can she trust to help her?  

• Language: English
• Publisher: EMSA Publishing
• Release date: Aug 19, 2018
• ISBN: 9781988843315

Elise Abram

Elise is a retired high school teacher of English and Computer Studies, former archaeologist, and current author, editor, freelance writer, avid reader of literary and science fiction, and student of the human condition. She has been writing for as long as she can remember. Over the years, writing has become as essential to her as eating, sleeping, or breathing.  Elise is best known as an urban fantasy and young adult novelist, but her writing interests are diverse. She has published everything from science fiction, horror and the paranormal, and contemporary fiction and police procedurals for all ages. She has also published five children’s picture books.

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THE NEW RECRUITBOOK Two: Indoctrination

Copyright © 2018  by Elise Abram

All rights reserved.

Published by EMSA Publishing 2018

Thornhill, Ontario, Canada

This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher's prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without similar condition, including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publishers, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review to be printed in a newspaper, magazine or journal.

The final approval for this literary material is granted by the author.

First printing

This is a work of fiction. Any similarity between the characters and situations within its pages and places or persons, living or dead, is unintentional and coincidental.

PUBLISHED BY EMSA PUBLISHING

http://emsapublishing.com

The New Recruit is printed in Century Schoolbook.

Credits: Cover fonts: Gabriele Ribbon FG by Andreas Höfeld.

Cover art: Blonde teenager girl alone and sad in blue hoodie ID

7668132 by DarrinaHenry | DepositPhotos.com; Niagara Falls at Night ID 153287826 by shkonstantin | DepositPhotos.com.

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IN THIS SERIES

The New Recruit

CHAPTER ONE

THE DAY WAS DULL AND overcast—had been that way for the better part of a week. We were already off the beaten path, so we got fewer golfers than the flashier joints on the strip, but no one wanted to play outdoor miniature golf in crappy weather, besides. And still, we had to man our posts.

For the time being, we was me and this other guy, Houston. I don't think that was his real name. Maybe he was originally from Houston, or maybe he just liked to think he was a cowboy or something. Anyway, not only did we have to man our posts, we were melting as we did. The summer months trended toward super-hot lately, and rather than cool it off, the moisture in the air only served to intensify the heat, making it thick and humid.

Niagara Falls was having a banner tourist year. The same couldn't be said for the Fun Park and Miniature Golf Inn, where I lived. At the Park and Inn, as we called it, the No Vacancy sign was always up. That was because all of Jo-Jo's kids lived there. The Park and Inn was one of his properties. We used it to hide in plain sight and lay low until we had to move. And though it had been the first place I'd lived since Toronto, the other kids assured me it wouldn't be long until we'd have to leave—they never stayed anywhere more than one or two years, tops.

What I wouldn't give for a Java Mocha Chip Frappuccino right now, Houston said. He leaned on his hand, elbow propped up on the customer service counter. I watched as his cheek, made slick by the sweat of his palm, slid from his hand and he nearly keeled over.

Starbucks was a luxury we couldn't afford. It was also part of the big corporation consumerism Jo-Jo expected us to shun.

I shook my head. Iced Capp for me. My mouth started to water at the very thought.

Look alive, people, Cain said as he passed by, shocking us from our frozen coffee daydreams. Tourists can sense desperation at the novelties a mile away.

He flashed his dimples at me—as if I wasn’t already hot enough...

Can I talk to you for a minute, Jude? he asked.

Cain was Cain Barrett, my boyfriend. He was the reason behind my relocation to Niagara. Him and Jo-Jo, whom Cain revered as his spiritual father.

I ducked under the kiosk's back corner counter where Cain met me with a very warm kiss. When our lips parted, he put a hand on each of my shoulders, looked at me, sighed, and said, I've got this thing. Jo-Jo wants me to do this...thing, and I have to cancel tonight.

Oh, no! Cain! His name came out like a whine. I didn't mean to pout, but it was the third time in a row we'd made plans and Cain had to cancel them. We were going to take in the sights.

I know, he said. His hands dropped to his sides and came to rest on his hips. He looked down at his feet and then looked up at me, his head still tilted downward.

I'm so tired of being cooped up here.

At least you're outside. It could be worse.

How could it possibly be worse?

He looked down and then back up at me and opened his mouth as if to speak.

Forget it, I said.

When I'd first arrived, I was confined to my quarters. Jo-Jo had insisted it was for my own safety until the heat of the explosion had blown over. I took all of my meals in my room and had nothing else to do for days on end but read or do the occasional puzzle. We had no television because Jo-Jo was convinced it would rot our brains. Jo-Jo was a self-described Luddite, a person who opposes technology, so we had no access to computers, cell phones, or the Internet. Once a week, we all gathered out in the Fun Park, a dilapidated kid's swing set and play area, and watched a movie projected onto the wall of the Inn from a reel-to-reel projector.

The last time I'd been to see the falls was when I was a kid. Mom and Dad had decided to book a hotel with a waterpark and see the sites. We'd gone on the monster Ferris wheel, taken in a few museums, and played in the waterpark until we were pruney. I'd always wanted to go back, but Dad had always been too busy. 

Confession? Cain said. His cheeks flushed. Or maybe it was because of the heat and sun—I couldn't tell. Jo-Jo thinks it's too soon.

Too soon for what?

To stray off campus.

Why didn't you tell me that sooner?

Cain shrugged. I know your situation here is contentious...

Contentious: something debatable and prone to argument.

I'd definitely say my situation was contentious. I'd sort of stumbled into being one of Jo-Jo's kids, thanks to Cain. Little did I know my search for a job so I'd rely less on my dad and have a bit more freedom would wind up accomplishing the exact opposite. It was the definition of situational irony. If you looked situational irony up in the dictionary, you'd most probably see a picture of me in front of the Fun Park and Miniature Golf Inn.

Where are you going? I asked.

The whole thing was Cain's fault. He was the one who'd recruited me, introduced me to Jo-Jo, and got me involved in the Bay Street Bombing. He was also the one who'd given me an out, kept me from going to jail, and given me a place to live.

Cain shrugged again. 

Veil of secrecy, right? I asked. Jo-Jo sure loved his secrets.

Plausible deniability. That meant if he kept us kids in the dark, we could deny we knew what the others were doing.

When will you be back? Can you tell me that much?

Cain chuckled as if he was amused at the pain I'd experience missing him. A few days. He stroked my head and twined a lock of my hair around his finger. You'll live.

I knew I'd live. The question was: would I survive?

CHAPTER TWO

TWO DAYS, TEN PATRONS, and a hundred holes later, Cain returned. He parked this beat-up, old pick-up truck Jo-Jo had given him to drive, stepped out of the cab, waved at me, and winked. Rather than come to see me at my kiosk, he went into the Inn's main office to check-in with Jo-Jo.

Jo-Jo came first in Cain's life. The fact that Jo-Jo had rescued Cain from a life in the foster system was only part of the debt Cain felt he owed the man. Jo-Jo was Cain's surrogate father, spiritual leader, and employer, all rolled into one. When I considered my future