Out of Sight Out of Mind (26 page)

It was a blanket and it was stifling her in its musty smelling folds. Sweating, and struggling to breathe, she fought her way out, fear shrieking adrenaline around her body.

Jay was beside her. The dread that they might have been separated receded.

Grimly, she ran her hands over his body, checking for injuries. It was hard to see in the dimness, but she couldn’t find anything. No sign of broken bones or blood on her hands. What they’d used must have been some sort of tranquilliser. Jay was unconscious, but he wasn’t hurt.

She sat back, forcing her mind to calm. Of course they wouldn’t hurt him. They wanted him fully functioning for what they intended to do. She looked round, swallowing a wave of nausea, trying to take stock of their surroundings.

They were lying on the floor of a van and it was moving at speed. She got to her knees and grabbed for something to hold on to as they bucketed over a bump in the road. Everything lurched.

When she was stable enough to glance over her shoulder again, Jay was attempting to sit up. His face looked green in the half-light, but his eyes were focused. She put her arms around him to hold him steady as the van bucked again.

‘What was it they hit you with?’ She spoke close to his ear, to combat the noise of the engine

‘Stun gun, I think. It’s okay. I’ll be better in a minute.’ He shook his head and shifted, to brace himself against the side of the vehicle. ‘I’m sorry, Madison. I’ve got you into this.’ His voice broke.

For a moment she stared at him, confused. Then she realised, with a sudden snap, that Jay was staying in character, in case they were being observed. She shuddered. She could so easily have given them away.

He seemed to sense her alarm. His grip tightened.

‘What is this?’ The quaver in her voice was frighteningly real. ‘What’s going on, Jay?’

Alec let himself into the room and locked the door behind him. Madison Albi was sitting stiffly in a chair. Her hands were free but her ankle was padlocked to a chain fastened to the wall.

They stared at each other. She really was quite beautiful, Alec admitted silently. The paleness of her face and the fear in her expression couldn’t change the wealth of chocolate-brown hair and the large dark eyes. It was the eyebrows that made her face so distinctive, he decided – naturally shaped, with a fine slanting arch. The chin had a dimple in it, but it still looked stubborn. Alec smothered a grin. Creed hadn’t had an easy time with this one. He would do better.

‘Dr Albi.’ He inclined his head politely as hers jerked up. ‘I am Alec Carver. I believe Dr Creed may have mentioned me.’ He watched her carefully, gauging her reaction.

She was shaking her head. ‘I don’t know you. I don’t know where I am. I don’t know what you want with me.’ She had that chin up, brave despite the quiver in her voice. Alec strolled across the room and sat on the edge of the table that stood in the centre. He waited for her to speak again. He knew she would. He didn’t have to wait long. ‘I work at a specialist research centre, from which you or your associates snatched me, and the subject with whom I was working. I have no idea what you want with us. But I have to tell you, the alarm was raised. The police will be looking for us by now.’

Alec allowed himself a small smile. ‘I doubt if they’ll find you. At least not in time.’ He saw the flash of panic in her eyes, quickly controlled. ‘I apologise for the rather violent nature of your arrival here,’ he said smoothly, hitching up a trouser leg. ‘We require your participation in an experiment, Dr Albi. After that you will be free to go.’

‘Free? Experiment?’ Her voice rose. With temper, not alarm, Alec noted with interest. ‘Just what is going on here?’ she demanded. ‘If you’d wanted to do some sort of experiment, you could have approached my employers—’

‘This is something rather unusual.’ Alec watched her face intently, his respect for her growing. The woman was still frightened, but she wasn’t letting it overwhelm her. ‘You and Dr Creed—’

‘The man you brought here with me is an amnesiac, whose name is Jay,’ she interrupted. ‘Just before you kidnapped us he made a partial, maybe a full, recovery of his memory. I didn’t have time to make a proper assessment.’ Her glance now was almost waspish. ‘He started yelling about being Creed, and that we had to get out. He seemed to know that you were coming. On the way here he also talked of an experiment. Not very coherently.’

Alec bent over to study Madison’s face. There was nothing there but confusion, some fear, and that interesting spark of anger. Her expressions really were quite transparent. No need to chance a mind probe – he could
see
what he needed, without taking the risk of opening a dangerous channel between them. No point in gambling his defences with a woman as talented as this one. He sat back, satisfied. ‘In that case, Dr Albi, it falls to me to explain the situation.’

The ridges in the surface of the bench were digging into Jay’s hip. His head was clear; the effect of the stunner had worn off. Not a weapon he’d encountered before – extremely fast and effective – and probably new and experimental. The Organisation demanded the latest and the best. Sometimes they were even prepared to pay to acquire it. He tried to turn, to ease some of the pressure, but the bindings around his legs and arms brought him up short. He settled down again, willing himself to ignore the ache in his limbs and the sweat of apprehension pooling at the base of his spine. He’d anticipated that he and Madison might be separated. He’d hoped to be wrong.

Anxiety for her had just begun to knot hard in his stomach when the door of the room opened with a bang. Jay ducked his head against the bright lights blaring in from the corridor. The man standing in the entrance was tall, with a shaved head and very dark eyes. Vic, the computer expert, the one who had made the machine.

He was also the man who had been waiting for them by the door of the lab, the one with the stun gun. Jay could sense his caution. He was staying in the passageway. Jay almost smiled. Clearly Vic had checked with Alec about his approach. He wasn’t taking any chances with mind games.

‘Your memory back?’ Vic barked.

Delay wasn’t going to achieve anything. ‘Yes,’ Jay said.

‘Then you know what you’re here for. Alec is talking to your girlfriend, he’s persuading her to co-operate. Everything goes well, she walks away. You want her to do that, you co-operate, too. Think about it.’

The door banged shut again.

Madison licked her upper lip nervously, channelling all her distress and confusion. Alec Carver was still sitting on the end of the table, swinging one leg. Tentatively she tried a veiled mind probe. It went in without difficulty, only to hit a well-constructed defensive barrier. She flattened the probe immediately, automatically checking that her own shield was in place. Jay hadn’t underestimated the man’s power. She put her hand to her head.

‘Jay really is Jayston Creed? And you want us to repeat the experiment that killed his wife?’ she asked, shakily.

‘Don’t panic,’ Alec warned. ‘The first experiment failed because Gina Creed wrecked it. You won’t be doing that. Plus, Jay and I will be taking care of you. You have nothing to worry about, Dr Albi, if you’re prepared to co-operate.’

‘If I do what you want, you promise I’ll be free to leave? And Jay?’ She let the hope spill into her face, watched Carver smile.

‘I think that you and I are going to be able to business, Dr Albi.’

Madison felt as if all the blood had drained from her body when the shaven-headed man shoved Jay into the room. She was at his side in an instant, steadying him, blessing the fact that Carver had taken the padlock from her ankle and left them alone. Jay leaned against her for a second. She touched his face, the briefest spark of contact. Her eyes went hard when she saw that Jay’s hands were cuffed. Silently he shook his head.

Clearing her throat, she went back to the script. ‘You’re really Jayston Creed?’ She looked him in the eyes, and focused.
‘Alec told me everything. That you and he were working together. He even apologised.’

Jay’s eyes widened. He nodded.
‘I got Vic – if I co-operate, you can walk away.’

‘Can you do what they want?’ She turned up the uncertainty in her voice as high as she could.
‘Alec promised all of us will get out.’

Jay’s brows rose. ‘I can do what has to be done. With your help.’

‘What do I have to do?’ she asked aloud.
‘I tried a probe on Alec. It didn’t work. He was too well defended.’

‘Vic didn’t stay around long enough for me to try.’

‘You’re sure that you want to do this?’

‘Do we have a choice?’

‘I don’t think so,’ he said.

‘Then I have to do it.’

Jay leaned against the table. ‘This is what I need from you.’

‘This is too bloody easy.’ Vic hauled a piece of equipment, that Alec couldn’t identify, into place. ‘Both of them agreeing? This fast?’

‘You’re just mad because you didn’t get to beat anyone up,’ Alec suggested, grinning.

Vic glowered. He dragged the stun gun out of his belt and pointed it. ‘Don’t push me.’

Alec held up his hands in mock surrender. ‘What are you going to do? Zap me? I don’t think so. Not with
him
watching us.’

Alec cast his eyes upwards. Vic followed his glance and cursed, softly but graphically. The CEO was standing on a wide metal gantry above them, looking down.

Vic groaned under his breath. ‘Does he have to be here?’

Alec’s grin widened. ‘He thinks so.’

‘Tosser.’

‘Him or me?’

Vic just gave him a death-head stare.

Alec prowled around the space. The manufacturing unit had been stripped and was now awaiting refitting. The Organisation had acquired the whole of the small industrial estate which surrounded it six weeks before. It would be sold on again, before the end of the month. The unit was close to the river, spacious, quiet and private.

Jay and Madison were tucked away in the warren of workshops and offices that ran along the front of the building. The empty factory floor had the open area for the equipment Vic needed. They’d waited until evening, and less congested roads, to move in the largest and most sensitive pieces. Bleak, industrial walls stretched up, bare and unforgiving, into the gloom of the pitch roof. A skylight showed a darkening sky and scudding clouds. ‘Did you check the perimeter?’ Alec asked, as he wandered back to where Vic was positioning chairs. He’d recovered from the terror of the weekend, but the fear that Jay had run, leaving him hanging in the wind, was still a bitter memory in his mouth.

‘Do I have to do every fucking thing around here?’ Vic snarled. ‘Parker and Kelly have been all round, twice. There’s nothing out there. Only a lot more empty buildings. Do you really think the cavalry is going to come rushing over the hill?’

Alec shrugged and looked away.

‘Cavalry or not, I still think it’s too fast.
They
could be up to something,’ Vic grumbled. ‘We should have sweated them a little longer.’

‘That might have been possible if the alarm hadn’t gone off at the lab. The plan was to get them away quietly.’ Alec ignored Vic’s deep scowl. ‘People will be looking for them, which is why we need to be sure there’s no one out there,’ he explained, with exaggerated patience. ‘Don’t worry about the experiment. We can do it. Albi doesn’t know what’s hit her. She was ready to grab the first way out that offered. Creed killed his wife.’ Alec’s hands tightened into fists. He unfolded them, with a deliberate gesture. ‘This time he’s going to do the noble thing and try to save the lady. Why wait?’

Vic turned his back on him, pointedly, and started to plug in leads and power cables. A portable generator hummed.

Alec looked critically at the three chairs that faced each other in the middle of the jumble of computer gear that the men had unloaded. ‘Are you nearly done here?’

‘Yeah.’ Vic was booting up the machines. Lights blinked. A low-level buzz was audible as he punched buttons. ‘You sit there,’ he said, indicating the chair. ‘I’ll be behind Albi, she will be facing Creed. Then if either of them gives us any grief, well—’ He patted the stunner.

‘Dr Albi doesn’t understand enough to be a problem. And Creed won’t give you any trouble,’ Alec asserted.
He’s going to be trusting me, right to the end.

‘You reckon?’ Vic gave Alec an enigmatic look. ‘You nervous?’ he asked curiously. Alec avoided his eyes.

‘Of course I’m nervous. Last time this was done, two people died. But this time it’s going to work. Do you need me to do anything?’

‘No. These babies are up and running. Three machines, networked. Each of you will be hooked up to one. I feed you what power you need. You just stay open, and give me everything you can. Any glitches I can clean up later when I lay down the programme. I just need to get the moves that Albi and Creed make when they start to change things in your head.’ He shot Alec a baffled look. ‘I still don’t get that you’re up for this. They’re going to be inside your
brain
man! Messing with your
mind
!’

‘Not for that long,’ Alec said confidently. ‘There are vast areas of the brain we don’t use. Creed will be working in one small part. It will only take a few seconds for you to get what you want.’

‘And then you get what
you
want.’

Alec smiled slowly. ‘I do. Better be ready.’

‘Don’t worry about that.’ Vic patted the nearest machine. ‘What about Albi?’

‘Not a problem. She’s the powerhouse. She keeps things running while Creed does the fine tuning.’

‘And that’s what Gina did?’

‘Yes.’ Alec leaned over to straighten a chair by a centimetre. ‘That’s what Gina did.’

Madison’s hands were trembling. Her stomach had given up trying to climb out of her throat and was see-sawing rhythmically, like a fairground ride. She still had enough presence of mind to glare at Vic and to knock his hand away when it strayed down to her breast as he fixed sticky pads, with wires attached, to her forehead and the back of her neck. He grinned and made an exaggerated kissing motion with his lips. She turned her head away, studying the other two men.

There’d been a small disturbance when Jay and Alec had come face to face. They’d eyed each other, like scrapping dogs. Which was exactly what Alec had told her would happen. Behind Vic’s back he gave her a reassuring smile.

‘I want these things taken off.’ Jay held up his cuffed hands.

‘You don’t need—’ Vic began to argue.

‘Remove them.’

Madison’s head shot up. There was a man standing on a metal landing above them. It must be a man, even though it looked like an ape. Vic slouched over and unlocked the cuffs. Madison studied the gantry. It ran the length of the building. There were steps up from the main floor, at regular intervals. A ladder stretched up from the gantry into the depths of the roof.

‘If you’re ready, Dr Albi?’ Alec put a gentle hand on her shoulder. ‘I’ll be taking my place in just a second. Then we can begin.’

Madison inhaled. The see-saw in her stomach, the betraying hands and the sweat on her hairline, all faded from her thoughts. She looked over at Jay. His face was set. His hands were on his knees. Unmoving.

Alec was fastening electrodes and settling in his chair.

Madison sensed a movement above. Automatically she looked up. The man on the gantry had stepped forward. He was leaning over, intent on the scene below him. As he stooped over the rail she caught his eye. With a small gasp of surprise and shock, she jerked away from the contact.

‘Dr Albi?’ Alec had caught her sudden movement. ‘Is anything wrong?’

‘No. I’m fine.’ She waved away his concern. Mercifully he didn’t pursue it. She bent her head, looking at the floor. The man above didn’t seem to have noticed anything. With another deep breath she sealed away the horror she’d learned in that second of connection, to retrieve later.

When she raised her eyes, Jay was looking at her. He nodded, one small dip of his head. His mouth was a tense line. He had to be thinking of the last time he attempted this. With a relinquishing sigh she thrust aside her doubts, cleared her mind, and let go.

Immediately she could feel Jay reaching for her. She opened her defences a little wider, and pushed forward, entranced. Jay was spinning a connection between them, like a bridge. She could pass along it to him and he to her. With her eyes closed she could almost see it, a narrow golden arc, glimmering between them. Power flickered off it, like butterfly wings.

Behind her she was conscious of a change in the note of the machines. Vic’s presence was a darkening cloud behind her. The bridge wobbled. With a shimmer of guilt she concentrated forward again.

Jay was strengthening the structure. Power was spiralling off it now, like droplets of hot rain. He was edging back, letting her take the weight, encouraging her onward; to assume responsibility for the bridge.

She eased forward, surprised at the smoothness. Jay was urging her towards him. She felt warmth roll over her. She exhaled, and the bridge glittered and sang.

She felt the tiny flutter of surprise that flowed down the span from Jay, and knew she was smiling. The note of the computers had changed again. This time she used the sound, weaving it into the shining arch.

She was all the way across now, using her concentration to hold the continuation in place, feeling the reserves of life force lurking in the back of her head, paradoxically boosted by the connection and the outlet of skill – golden particles, streaming through her. She fed on the energy.

She reached Jay’s mind and felt dark blue silk brush around her. She tasted lilies. Approval and welcome surrounded her. She basked like a cat. She could stay like this forever, suspended here.
This
was who she was. Her essence.

She moved her thoughts and knitted something complex, just for the pleasure of it, a grandiose bulwark, at the end of the bridge. She wanted to clap her hands at the joy of it.

She read Jay’s amusement and acknowledgement, but also his caution. Sobering, she settled again, holding the structure.

She felt the pattern inside Jay shift.

The bridgehead was moving on. Energy darted outwards. Now there were two bridges. Her to Jay, and Jay to Alec.

It was happening.

She urged the power forward.