Big Three-Thriller Bundle Box Collection (30 page)

Dr. Yumi then appeared in the doorway, stepped to one side and seemed to be supervising. A woman came in carrying a basket and went to the bathroom, a man following with arms loaded with towels. As they finished in the bathroom, I was surprised to see Chief Dailey pop in. Yumi handed him something very small as he walked by. He went into the bathroom, took a bar of soap from the woman there. As the other two left, Dailey went directly to the shower. He unwrapped the soap, tossed the wrapper into the trash and looked about himself. After a pause, he stepped into the stall and with both hands carefully placed the soap into the shower caddy, then slipped something underneath it that I would have bet was what he’d just gotten from Yumi — the hastily scribed note I’d found under the bar. He went to the linen closet and took something from his pocket that looked like a small pouch. This time, what he held with both hands squirmed wildly. He set the pouch inside on the towels and opened it. Out came a small animal. Due to the distance from the camera, it wasn’t obvious, but I was sure it was Mickey.

When Dailey left, Michelle came with another woman who assisted her in undressing. Michelle sat down naked at the make-up table and her assistant used a spray bottle to mist her back. After Michelle’s assistant left, two men brought a gurney in, with me on it. They carefully lifted me into place on the bed as Yumi watched. After they departed, Yumi checked her watch, stepped to the bedside, pulled a hypodermic from her lab coat and injected it into my neck. As my head slowly moved from side to side, Yumi stepped away and left through the doorway.

Yumi said, “Those of us who were against the
Brainstorm
project did what we could to give you hints, things that would make you pause for thought. However, we were being watched as well as you were, so any suspicious movements in your home could have been scrutinized.

“Fortunately, while this was being recorded, Dr. Xiang was waiting outside the house and not viewing. The technician in the control room who did have access, was one of my people. Do you remember the new toothpaste tube and toothbrush, the new soap? Normally, we would have left partially used props. We did not spritz the shower, only Michelle’s back. We did not scuff the shoes, we did not use laundered clothes, as was the usual case. Chief Dailey even left the gerbil you befriended when your mind should have been completely blank. We found an unusual amount of willpower in you, thoughts and memories too deeply ingrained to destroy. Xiang was excited about your potential.”

An alarm went off from the hallway that took our attention from the computer monitor. It reminded me of a submarine dive alarm, and a voice came over the intercom speaker in the viewing room we occupied.

“Security alert!” the voice said in a loud but calm voice. “Security alert! All essential personnel, report to the control center immediately!” The call repeated twice.

“I must go,” Yumi said. “And you must return to the morgue and wait.”

She removed a cell phone from her lab coat pocket and punched two keys. “This is Yumi, Dr. Xiang.” She glanced at me and motioned toward the door with her pistol.

I got up but must have been moving too slowly for her because she waved the gun toward the door three more times, quickly.

“Yes, Doctor,” she said over the phone. “I’ll be there immediately.” She pushed a button and dropped the phone back into her pocket. I slipped the helmet back on, and as I placed my hand on the doorknob, she said, “I must leave now. Essential personnel are evacuating.”

I stepped away from the door and motioned for her to go first. “That’s good. I’ll be left home alone — to do what I need to do.”

“Not exactly. Dr. Xiang and his core of scientists and technicians are leaving. That includes me. However, the guards, many of the doctors, assistants, patients and other personnel will be left behind to die when the bombs go off. They have no idea. I would guess at least a thousand people at Biotronics alone. The nuclear device in town will ensure the deaths of over four thousand there.”

“My God! How can we stop the nukes?”

“Impossible. The one at this facility is buried in fifty feet of concrete. Dr. Xiang has already remotely started the timer and it is irreversible.”

“What can we do?”

“For them, nothing. There is no way to get them all out in time. The devices are set to go off at sunrise, 05:46 this morning, five seconds apart. You have until then to find safe distance from the blast. Your helicopter is your only answer. I can no longer baby-sit you. You know the situation. You are now on your own.”

In the swirl of her lab coat, and without the chance for further protest, Yumi left through the door.

Chapter 29

When I reentered the hallway, I placed my goggles over my eyes and walked guardedly back toward the morgue. I hoped Sunny would be awake, and between us we could figure out what to do about Gold Rush and Biotronics. Twenty feet from the morgue, a voice came from behind me.

“Security.”

Harvey said,
Oh, shit!
and I cringed inwardly. The voice sounded like Xiang’s. I kept going.

The voice rose. “Security!”

I stopped five feet from my destination.

“Come here!”

I turned slowly, but realized I needed to look the part I was playing or things would unravel very rapidly. I stepped quickly toward Xiang. He waited in front of the elevator next to two cabinets on wheels. Mike Wu stood next to him.

As I approached, I nervously checked my copper-tinted goggles to make sure they were in place. They were. I tried to walk as militarily as possible to him and at five feet away, I stopped and stood at attention.

Dr. Xiang said to Mike Wu, “Take these files to the truck. It’s waiting in the tunnel.”

Tunnel?
Harvey asked.
There’s a tunnel?

I wondered where it led.

Dr. Xiang continued, “I’ll get Dr. Yumi, and we’ll bring the last two.” He turned to me. “Help Colonel Wu with these carts.”

Colonel Wu
, Harvey repeated.
From captain of the high-school debating team to colonel — quite a jump.

Why would they need a colonel at a newspaper? He’d worked at the
Gold Mine Gazette
since high school. Worked his way up to senior editor. In my reprogrammed mind he was no colonel, and his new title did not create new respect. He’d gotten a two-year degree as I had from Summit County Community College. His associates’ degree was in journalism. He’d never been in the military.

The elevator doors opened, Dr. Xiang left down the hall, and I got behind one of the carts. I pushed it onto the elevator behind Mike Wu’s lead. I went to the back of the elevator car as the doors closed, and I tried to stay behind Wu. He took out a key and opened a small compartment above the elevator control buttons, which said Authorized Personnel Only. Inside were several additional buttons labeled
Sub Floor 2
through
Sub
Floor 5
. He poked
Sub Floor 2
. We were going to a level below the basement of the building.

Wu didn’t speak to me, but he looked over his shoulder a couple of times. The second time I noticed he was looking at my name badge, the one that gave the name of the dead security guard.

He watched the elevator doors as we descended, and I could tell he was thinking about me. He knew something was up, I was certain, and I could feel my head getting warm inside my helmet. I felt pressure at the back of my skull, and it pulsed to my temples. A low hum began, and the helmet vibrated.

As the elevator made sub floor two, Mike Wu turned around to face me. His stare was wild and intense. I’d been found out. Moreover, not only was I endangered, but also Sunny and as well, Dr. Yumi for not killing us.

The pressure inside my skull increased to the point of extreme pain, and I began panting. The copper-tinted goggles in front of my eyes started to glow. The hum turned into a roar, the vibrations becoming shakes and even our elevator car shuddered as the door opened. When the ballistic-resistant plastic shell of the helmet cracked, I could take no more. I yanked the helmet off and struck Wu with it in one motion. He caught most of the force when he defensively brought his hands up to his face, but still he fell through the open elevator doorway and onto the floor outside. I shoved the two carts from the elevator, and they toppled onto him, as I jabbed the first floor button.

While the elevator doors closed, Wu was struggling to get out from underneath one of the heavy carts, and he yelled, “I’ll get you! You’re nothing compared to me. Your ass is mine, Weller!”

Harvey said,
Your magic sucks, ours rules!
and my imaginary ally gave Wu the raspberry.

As the elevator ascended, I fell back against the corner of the car and struggled for breath. Still on the floor of the elevator lay my helmet liner, exposed and separated from the cracked helmet shell. The liner was like some sort of copper fabric
— thin, woven copper wire. I deduced the importance of the things. As Yumi had said, the copper stopped whatever kind of energy I exuded, the electrical field. It protected the brain of whoever wore it. In my case, it had contained the energy and turned it into something like a microwave oven on my brain. Between my power and Mike Wu’s equal or perhaps greater power, I’d nearly fried my own mind.

I knew Wu would be right behind me, either taking the stairs or another elevator. He’d most likely come with an entourage of security guards.

I decided I’d do my best to avoid Wu and at the same time search for my son and Sunny’s husband, Daniel McMaster. Maybe I could somehow outwit Wu, incapacitate him, stop him in some manner at the same time. For now, I would check on Sunny on the first floor, then head directly to the children’s ward on floor two.

When the elevator door opened to the first floor, I pushed the number five button. After I stepped off, the elevator doors closed, and it began its ascent to the facility’s top floor. A clamor came from the stairway opposite the elevator, but instead of ducking into the morgue, I flattened into a small alcove ten yards down. I didn’t dare risk Wu seeing me going back into the morgue
— for him to come after me and find Sunny still alive.

*  *  *

Mike Wu and five security guards busted through the stairway door and stopped in front of the ascending elevator. Mike, at six foot one, was taller than the others, probably all under five foot nine. They jerked their heads in both directions, and I ducked back into the recess enough, I hoped, to observe them unseen. Wu watched the elevator floor lights above the entryway. When he saw the elevator had stopped on the fifth floor, he told three of the men to search the first floor, and he took the other two with him to the stairway, bound for the floors above.

The first door the three security guards rushed into was the lab. Three doors down from it was the morgue and Sunny.

I shoved from the wall of the alcove and raced down the hall, not slowing down to notice if they’d seen me running past the open lab door. Luckily, no one popped out of the lab. I figured they were still checking in cabinets, wall lockers and closets, and under tables where they thought I might be hiding.

I entered the morgue quietly to find Sunny awake, but still on the table. She looked at me groggily, her arms reaching out. I went to her and gave her a brief hug.

“They’re coming — three of them, and there’ll be more. They’re going to kill us this time. I can’t stop them, I’m unarmed and they’re wearing protective helmets.”

Sunny frowned at me. “You can stop them, Superman. There’s good reason for your nickname. You were always resourceful. You could figure your way out of anything, solve any puzzle. There’s a way
— you just have to think.”

I remembered how the guy wearing the suit in the
Acquire
video — me — fought the four men. If only I could regain that kind of fighting knowledge, if somehow it would come back as second nature. Yet the men pursuing us now were armed and planned to kill us, not capture us. They could stand back and shoot without having to get close enough for me to have a chance to fight them.

Then, I remembered Sunny’s gun. The guard who was wearing the very fatigues I now wore had stashed it in one of his front pockets. When I slipped my hand inside, I was surprised to find the small pistol still there, and I handed it to Sunny. She checked the chamber and magazine.

“Only two rounds left,” she said. She looked at me with eyes full of worry. “I need you, Superman. You need to come out of this haze you’re in and shine like you used to.”

This haze she spoke of was more of a soup-thick fog inside my head. However, I knew it was now totally up to me to keep us alive for the next few minutes, to save Will, to save Sunny’s husband, and to save the thousands of innocent people of Gold Rush.

“Robert, listen,” Sunny said. “You wanted to hear more of what I know. I’ll tell you. I’ll tell you about you and Dan.” She tried to sit up but fell back down. I helped her, and she sat on the edge of the table, holding her head as I steadied her with one hand. “You two weren’t merely experiments for Vanzandtz back in college. You exhibited talent, however uncultivated, in all the tested fields of psychic abilities. You not only showed a high level of telepathic, but also telekinetic power. But what both of you really excelled at was remote viewing. Do you know what that is?”

“We don’t have time, now, Sunny,” I told her and gently forced her to lie back on the table.

“We don’t have time for me not to tell you,” she said as I went to the back of the door. “Do you know?”

I watched the knob as Sunny trained her last two bullets on it. “I think so.”

“Dan soon became the best remote viewer the U.S. government had. He was so good, the DIA brought him into their Grill Flame project, and he was their top RV. He could do anything, see the future, the past, transcend space and time to distant sites.”

I was astonished and unbelieving. “Sunny, I don’t believe that nonsense. It’s fairy-tale stuff.”

“Believe it. It happened.”

“How’s it going to help us now? Dan isn’t here.”

“But don’t you see? You were just as good as Dan. You can do what he did.”

“Okay, say I am. What am I going to do, grab a hold of you and sweep us away to some time in the past or future, so that we don’t get killed?”

“It doesn’t work that way. Only your consciousness travels — sees. Your body stays here.”

“Great, our bodies stay here and get shot full
of holes while our consciousnesses fly off to Shangri-La.”

“No, I don’t know how it can be useful,” she said and seemed to consider it. Her eyes lit up. “How about if you go into the future a few seconds, maybe half a minute, and view what will happen?”

“What, watch us die in the future, then relive it in the present? Even if I could, that’s ridiculous.”

“No, see the future and then prevent it in the present.”

“Could Dan do that?”

“I don’t know. When he was with Grill Flame, he said he could see the future, but couldn’t affect it because he had no physical existence in that dimension. But if we knew the future now, exactly what will happen, we can react to change it. Then, the future that originally appears to you won’t happen.”

“God, this is crazy!”

“I know it sounds nuts, but what do we have to lose? You can do it, just like Dan did.”

“Okay, so how do I do this
remote viewing
stuff?”

“Since you don’t remember, this is really going to sound insane to you. Just go along with me, okay
— and know it works, that it’s been done thousands of times. The U.S. government has spent hundreds of millions developing it.”

“Now, you’re really making me skeptical.”

“Just listen. The CIA called SCANATE — scanning by coordinate. An assistant — me — selects a time and place to view and assigns it two sets of numbers or coordinates. The numbers actually have little importance. They’re mostly a point for the viewer’s concentration. The viewer then applies his full concentration to those numbers. The talented remote viewer enters a state of total consciousness and concentration and his psyche transcends into a dimension without physical being. It’s a place where time and space have no importance. Nothing he sees really exists but are only symbols for information he can view. Dan told me that what most advanced viewers see is what they call the universal matrix, generally appearing as a three dimensional grid of numbers, letters and symbols. They can be thought of as anchors or reference points. He finds the numbers the assistant has assigned to the target scene and is able to access that time and place to view, not physically but more as an audience to what is like a virtual reality movie. Although he can touch, feel, taste, hear and see, he cannot actually move anything, or affect anything in that dimension.”

This was all too far out. What had already happened to me over the past eighteen hours had been incredible, and now this
— to step completely away from reality, no matter how bizarre it had become, and transcend into a different dimension?

Sunny said, “We’re wasting time. Let’s try it. Fast forward. The numbers are four, eight, seven, nine and three, five, two, six. Concentrate.”

*  *  *

It is as if some other part of my consciousness has taken control, and my brain is on autopilot. Without willing to, I find my concentration on those numbers and forget about the deadly world around me. The speaking of the numbers seems to have turned a key and unlocked a door to a place I evidently have been many times before. I feel my head spinning, and I know I am somehow putting myself into a kind of trance. I picture the numbers as if they are in front of me, about an inch tall, three dimensional and illuminated. They float in a sort of black, empty plasma. They begin gyrating, as do I. I rotate slowly at first. Then I become part of a whirling vortex, being sucked into a tiny point of light, which seems miles away, and I compare the experience to that of a mouse in a flushing toilet.