by Kim Harrison
Something to make the next hour more tolerable. Shit, they’d laced her Evocane.
Peri took a step back, alarm pulling through her like a hot ribbon. Her muscles were beginning to feel warm even in the chill of the back room. A faint buzz sounded between her ears, and her fingertips were numb when she pressed them together. The tech had laced her Evocane with something to get her talking. Seeing as she didn’t have a reason not to, she would.
“She never will, you know,” she said. “Accelerate you?” she added when Michael’s eyebrows rose in a request for explanation. “Even if I hadn’t found that big old hole in her plans and blew myself through it. Want to know why?” Pulse fast, she carefully walked to the front of her cell and sat down on the discarded WEFT jacket before a wobble showed. “Because she wants the best. And you’re not it. I’m the better agent. Say it,” she mocked.
“You’re not as bulletproof as you think.” He stood so fast that the chair scraped backward.
Head resting against the fencing, she sighed, not needing to breathe again for at least four heartbeats. She couldn’t take her eyes off Jack, now spinning in a circle like a dog after his tail, watching himself go transparent under the effect of the drugs. “Hey, uh, babe? I don’t feel so good,” he murmured.
“I’m not surprised,” she whispered when he vanished with a tiny pop. Apparently she had no intuition under the influence of whatever drug Michael had forced on her. Curious. “Where are we? Newport?”
Michael ignored her, fiddling with his phone.
“Is Silas okay?” she asked, slurring to make him think she was deeper than she was. Three more minutes and it might be real. “If you hurt him, I’ll be pissed. You won’t like me when I’m pissed.”
He looked up, his dress shoes scraping on the old cement. “I don’t like you now.”
She chuckled, feeing the chemicals taking a stronger hold. Her obstinate nature gave her some resistance, but with no stake in the outcome, she was going to talk. She needed to talk now, before she lost all control.
“You want to know my secrets,” she said, letting her chuckle turn into a giggle-laced sigh. “It looks like you do.” Her head lolled, and she squinted up at him through one eye. “What’s your plan here, Major Delusion? I’m surprised you didn’t just let me slip into withdrawal. Force the truth out of me that way. Why all the drugs?”
Michael looked down at her with the keen sharpness of gauging her high. “Because anything gained under duress is not going to be the truth.” His legs folding gracefully, he sat down on the cement right before her, nothing but chain link between them. “You would tell me only what you think I want to hear so I will stop the pain. We proved that in the sixties. Torture is just an old white man’s need for revenge.” He picked a piece of gummed label off the wire between them and flicked it away. “I’m trying to be more forgiving to the people under me. You can’t help it if you’re ineffective. Besides, we have very good drugs these days.”
She blinked at him, hoping she wasn’t too far gone. “How big of you, Michael. Tell you what. Just for that, I’ll tell you what you want to know. For free.”
“I know you will.”
“But I want some assurance that Silas is okay first,” she said, eyes closed as she put her face against the fencing. “I want to talk to him.”
“No,” Michael said shortly. “Helen has Denier tucked into one of her labs. I don’t have easy access.”
Good to know. Peri lazily opened one eye. “Jack could do it,” she taunted. “You just don’t want to. Lazy ass.”
A jolt of adrenaline pulsed as she heard the fabric of his suit sliding as he eased closer, almost whispering, “Why did Helen suspend the program? How did you fail?”
She blinked slowly. “I didn’t fail. I succeeded. I’ve got a renewable source of Evocane that she can’t control, and I got it in a week while under fire.” His eyes narrowed and she added, “And that’s a problem, because if you take the anchor out of the equation, we are all loose cannons.” She smiled with half her face. “It makes for a very unsecure workforce. But you don’t plan on working for her, do you.”
“Now, why would you say that?” he said as he lifted his phone to take a picture of her.
“Because I don’t care,” she said, laughing sloppily and making a peace sign as the camera clicked. “You deserve it, Michael. If anyone does, it’s you. But you’ll never get it. She ended the program. Just like that. The thing is, I think you knew you’d never get it. That’s why you’re pissed all the time.” She squinted one eye shut. “Caught in her web. The bitch.”
“Where is the accelerator you stole from Bill?” he said tightly. “Does WEFT have it?”
“What, and have you kill me if I tell you?” she said, smiling cattily as the beginnings of a plan formed. She didn’t want out of her cage until keeping her alive was a priority for him. “Tell you what, though. I’ll take you to it. It gives me a fair shot. If you’re the best, then I won’t be able to slip you and you’ll deserve to be accelerated and I deserve to die.” Snuggling into Helen’s coat, she closed her eyes and leaned her head against the fencing again. “And if I escape, which I will, you’ll spend the rest of your life getting cats out of trees.”
Peri gasped at the sudden pain, never having seen the slap coming. Scooting back out of his reach, she put a hand to her face. The adrenaline cleared her mind for an instant. “Is that a no?” she said, thinking she’d won some points. Trying to hit her through the chain link had probably hurt his hand more than he’d hurt her face.
“I’m not letting you out. Tell me where it is, or that is the last Evocane you get.”
There was that, and she pulled the air into her, feeling it swirl in her lungs. Damn, I am so high right now. His threats meant little. She was a dead woman talking unless she could get herself out of here in the next twenty-four hours.
Seeing her pantomime zipping her lips shut, he stood, clearly confident things would be different when withdrawal set in. A fear born in self-preservation slid through her as Michael sauntered to the door, icing her mild buzz away. She had to keep him there, engaged. If that door shut, she was sure he wouldn’t open it until she was in withdrawal.
“You’re never going to get it, Michael,” she said, feeling drained as the words passed her lips. “Helen is holding your leash now instead of Bill. Kill me, and your chance for acceleration is gone. I can give you what you want, but you’re too scared to take it,” she accused, and he turned stiffly. “You’re afraid. Just like those old men you hate so much. You hear me? I got what you want, and nohow are you going to get it unless Silas is safe. Never.”
He pointed a finger at her, a lifetime of being told no on him. “I’m not letting you out.”
Because he was afraid of her. “Send Silas for it,” she said, concentrating on making the words come out right. Please stay alive, please. “He knows where it is. He can put it somewhere only I know about.” She forced her wandering gaze back to him. “And when I’m sure he’s safe, we’ll go collect it and see just who is the better agent, Mickie.”
Michael didn’t move, poised in the center of the room, thinking. Scared he wouldn’t go for it, she blew him a kiss and eased herself all the way down to the cold floor, pillowing her head on the wadded-up WEFT jacket. She had no intention of getting Silas involved other than getting him free. But the seed had been planted. It would fester until he pulled it out or it grew into full paranoia.
“I don’t have access to Silas,” he said. “I’ll send Harmony instead.”
Tension zinged through her. “No.” She rolled over onto her back, feigning indifference as relief swept through her. There was a grate in the ceiling, too tiny to fit through. “I’m not getting her involved anymore.”
“Harmony tried to kill me yesterday and got herself caught.” Michael ambled back to her fencing. “She’s involved up to her cornrows.”
Shit. Peri turned her head, a wave of dizziness blurring her vision. When it cleared, Michael
was swiping through his phone, smiling as he turned it to show her a picture. Peri’s eye twitched as she took in Harmony’s anger and frustration in what looked like an Opti cell. Damn it all to hell and back.
Silas was bad enough, but Harmony? Harmony hadn’t asked for this. She had not only helped her stay out of Steiner’s cage but had risked her career doing it. Peri didn’t care Harmony’s motive had been to bring in Michael and save her career—she had trusted Peri to remain true to her word when she had every reason to think otherwise. That this trust had put her in danger, a cage like the one she’d gotten Peri out of, was intolerable. Peri never abandoned those she worked with. Jack didn’t count. He had turned his back on her first.
Michael turned the phone and studied the photo. “She’d be fun to play with.” Smiling, he closed out the app and tucked the phone away. “Here’s the deal,” he said as he crouched before the fencing and Peri sat up. “You stay right here. I send Harmony and Jack—”
“Jack!” she blurted, and Michael grinned at her sudden flash of anger.
“He was with Harmony. I’m guessing they were aiming for you? But Jack is good backup. He’ll continue to play both sides of the fence,” he said smugly. “You gotta love Opti conditioning. They collect the accelerator. Bring it to me. And if it works, I let you all go.”
Fat chance. Even higher than a cirrus cloud, she knew better than that. “They collect the accelerator, call me, and I tell them where to drop it. Once I know they’re safe, I’ll take you to it,” Peri countered. I’ll get you out, Silas. I promise.
Michael inclined his head in thought. “Okay.” He took a surveillance camera from his pocket, one suitable for tucking atop a blind or under a TV. “But if your friends show up, I’m killing them all,” he said as he toggled on the tiny battery with a pen tip.
Peri grimaced. Harmony wasn’t getting anywhere near the accelerator currently tucked into the gearshift of her Mantis. “What about Silas?”
“Your credit isn’t that good. I can get you Harmony. That’s it. Yes or no.”
Peri grasped the chain link, trying to think around the drugs he’d pumped into her. She had little time to figure out how to get Silas in the mix to even the odds, but she wasn’t giving Michael anything unless Silas had a chance. “You give me no choice,” she finally said.
He shifted the chair back another foot, eyed her, then pulled it back some more. “Good.”
Her pulse quickened as he set the camera up on the clutter and strode to the door, his pace fast with intent. It screamed a protest as he opened it, but then the door slammed shut and the light clicked off, leaving her in thick darkness broken by the muffled sound of Michael giving orders.
Peri let go of the fencing. Slowly a crack of light showed from under the door as her eyes adjusted. Slumping, she sat where she was, pulling Helen’s coat tight around her again.
Evocane shot—check. Implant the idea I’m Michael’s ticket to remembering his drafts—check. Ascertain where Silas is . . . unknown but currently alive. He was alive. Her first hour of captivity had gone as well as she could have hoped.
Somehow, though, as she thought of Silas and Harmony, it didn’t feel like a win.
CHAPTER
THIRTY-FIVE
Somewhere between searching for Peri’s cell tower pings and scanning blurry plates from the tollbooth records, it had gotten dark. Bill pushed back from his desk, eyes smarting from the bright glow of his laptop. Past the big plate glass windows, Boston was just beginning to glitter against the bay. He cracked his neck, thick fingers pushing his notes and maps aside so he could think.
The afternoon spent looking for shadows of Peri on the I-95 corridor had been met with minimal success. It was as if she had dropped off the face of the earth, even his request for a ping on her radioactive tag culminating in nothing. He couldn’t believe she’d gone into hiding. Not to mention giving up on her revenge against Jack. It wasn’t like her and would mean she’d not only bucked the deep-set conditioning he’d installed that she never be alone, but she’d divorced herself from her ingrained loyalty to those she worked with as well. It was the loyalty that made her the perfect, easy-to-manipulate agent, but it was her need for revenge that convinced him she hadn’t given up and simply gone ghost.
“Maybe I’m going about this the wrong way,” he murmured, reaching for the intercom. “Sean? Are you here?”
“Yes, sir,” Sean answered back, his tone weary but still anxious to serve. “Would you like me to order something in?”
Priceless, Bill thought. “Might not be a bad idea. Whatever you want is fine. Could you run a check on Dr. Silas Denier for me as well? Same depth that you gave me for Peri. I may be going about this wrong.”
“Yes, sir. Michael is here to see you.”
Michael? Bill’s eyes flicked first to the early evening, then the papers on his desk. Michael never came to him. It was always the other way around. Except when Helen is involved.
Focus blurring, Bill calmed himself. Perhaps it was the endgame. “Send him in.”
He bent to his papers, shuffling them into order and pretending indifference as Sean opened the door. “Michael!” he called cheerfully as the tall, swarthy man edged in around Sean’s distrustful stance. “Come in. I’ve been getting a bead on Peri. This was easier when I had an entire team.”
“Did Peri get something other than Evocane?” Michael said point-blank, still standing just inside the door. “Either when she stole the original supply or with what we gave her in the arena?”
Truly surprised, Bill looked up, noticing he’d shut the door behind him. “No,” he said carefully. “My intent had been that she accelerate herself. Giving her fake Evocane would be counterproductive. Why?”
Silent, Michael sat in one of the overstuffed chairs. An ankle went atop a knee, his focus becoming distant.
This is not like Michael, Bill thought, and then a wash of heat took him as he realized that the reason he couldn’t find Peri was that Michael and Helen had her already. They had her, and hadn’t told him. They were cutting him out. Fortunately for him, Michael couldn’t read her, even with the drugs they’d probably been pumping into her. She’d said or done something to get the man confused, and he’d come to Bill to figure it out.
It was time.
Bill’s pulse quickened. With one swipe of his hand, he pushed the papers on his desk into the wastebin. “I’ve got Peri’s phone pinging towers all the way to Cleveland, and then nothing. Damn dead zones.”
Michael said nothing, fingers steepled and covering his lips in thought. His hands dropped and he took a breath. “Did you know how easy it was to duplicate Evocane?”
“It isn’t.” Bill hid his confusion, aiming for irritation instead. “Did Helen tell you that? Getting it to balance with the accelerator is almost impossible. She only thinks it’s easy.”
He could hear whispers of Peri’s plan in Michael’s questions, the way he was puzzling through it. Second-guessing Peri was usually a losing proposition. It was better to give her a goal and let her work it the way she wanted, but his life was in the mix this time. Perhaps she wanted Michael to believe she had a supply of it and was willing to share the accelerator she’d stolen in return for her life. But even Peri had to realize that Michael could achieve the same ends by simply killing her, riding out Helen’s wrath for the ultimate goal.
Unless upon gaining Peri, Helen let it slip that Michael would never be accelerated. Bill’s tension rose until he hid his agitation behind a sip of that cold, overly sweet coffee Sean kept pushing on him. If Helen had her, there was a danger that Peri would be wiped. But he knew his girl. She’d never cave. Not for pain, not for love. Not for anything.
He needed more. “What is this about, Michael?” Bill prompted, and Michael pulled himself out of his thoughtful stare.
“Nothing. What do you want me to do with Harmony and Jack?”
Interesting topic shift. Perhaps Peri had offered Michael her original vial of accelerator, tellin
g him she had a ready supply of Evocane to go with it, and she needed someone to fetch it for her. If so, it wouldn’t hurt to further Peri’s aim and confuse the man a little more.
“Why don’t you move them into a more permanent installation?” he said lightly, wanting to give Peri the help she was asking for. “We can’t trust Jack anymore, and it’s time to start thinking about the possibility that Peri isn’t going to come around. Hell, Michael,” he said with a chuckle. “At this point, if I had any accelerator, I’d be tempted to give it to you myself.”
Michael’s frown deepened, and a secondary thrill rose up in a whirlwind through Bill. Giving Michael access to the accelerator she’d stolen was exactly what Peri had offered him. If Bill could verify that she had the only viable stash, Michael would act on it. Taking on a bland look, Bill took another sip of cold coffee to hide his rising excitement. “Helen confiscated my entire store of it when we shut down the med wing. I got nothing, Michael, and that’s likely not going to change. She’s turning me into a damn administrator.”
Michael didn’t move, and Bill spun his Opti ring, stopping when he realized he was doing it. It had been the right thing to say. And now a layer of bullshit to hide the poison pill, he thought. “Speaking of which, I want your help tomorrow. I’ve got Peri’s location narrowed to a hundred-mile circle, and I need feet on the ground.”
“Where?”
Bill stifled a smile at the hint of angst in his voice. He had made these gods, and they were his to control. “I’m sending you to Buffalo,” he said, putting the search far away from where Helen had probably stashed her. “She’d go where she could duck over the border if she needed to.” Which was a lie, but Michael wouldn’t know that.
Michael’s sudden disinterest hit Bill like a slap. “Sure,” the tall man said, his subtle shifting as telling as the incongruity of Michael coming to see him at all. “You want me to move Harmony and Jack tonight so I have tomorrow free?”