Heart Stopper

by R J Samuel

  Priya was confused. “Is it Simone…?” she asked.

  Reyna nodded. “She has me where she wants me. Has had me there for years. I can’t talk about it; I can’t get involved with anyone. If she finds out…”

  “Do you still love her?” Priya asked in a shaky voice.

  Reyna lowered her face and kissed Priya. Priya let her heart and mind fall into the slow gentle kiss.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

  Monday, July 25, 2011

  She woke up covered in the bedspread. Her eyes and hands took in the empty space beside her where Reyna had slept and Priya felt cold despite the blazing fire. She threw off the cover and scrambled to her feet. There were sounds coming from the kitchen.

  Catherine was standing at the sink, gazing out of the window, water running over her hands.

  “She didn’t wake me. Has she gone?”

  Catherine nodded. “About half an hour ago.”

  Priya sat down at the table. Her limbs felt like they belonged to a stranger, a bigger, heavier person. She checked the clock on the wall; it was 8.15 a.m. Reyna would be at the Fairer Research building at about 9 a.m. depending on the commuter traffic in Galway.

  She said her voice sharp with fear, “It was a stupid plan. What were we thinking? Letting her go in on her own.”

  Catherine said nothing, just turned off the tap and wiped her hands on a dishtowel.

  Priya asked, “She took the rental car?”

  Catherine nodded.

  “Can I borrow your car?”

  Catherine turned and looked at her. Priya stared back.

  “Catherine, I can’t let Reyna put herself in danger for me. I agreed with her last night, like you did, but now…” She saw the look in Catherine’s eyes and added, “No, I don’t want you to come with me. Reyna would never forgive me.”

  Priya got up. “I’ll go to the research building and find Reyna and we’ll go together to the guards. I just have to hope that I’m not stopped on the way and that Valerie will be happy enough to let me be taken into custody. It’s what she wanted anyway. They must have made sure there’s enough evidence to point to me.”

  Catherine said, “Reyna will be furious with you. And me.”

  “But she’ll be safe.”

  Priya held out her hand and, after a pause, Catherine took a key ring off the kitchen counter and placed it in Priya’s palm. She placed both of her hands against Priya’s cheeks and whispered a thank you.

  ∞

  Despite the heavy station wagon she was driving, Priya found the journey over the winding Connemara roads easy compared to the nerve-wracking drive through the traffic in Galway though it was lighter than on a normal working day as many people had time off for the Races. She expected to be stopped at any minute by a white and blue Garda-emblazoned car. Her heart jumped when she saw a Traffic Corps car parked at the side of the road, the blue-uniformed woman writing out a ticket for a trapped driver, her partner watching from the driver’s seat, patiently tapping his fingers on the steering wheel. She had a desperate urge to slide down in her seat as she passed the officers, feeling as conscious as she had ever done in Ireland, of her difference, her brown skin in the sea of white. But the woman was engrossed in conversation with her victim who was obviously trying to talk his way out of a ticket and the partner was staring into space.

  The area around the clinic was quieter than was usual on a Monday morning, with only a skeleton staff in at work, the rest probably enjoying time off for Race Week. The car park in front of the research building was deserted apart from the rented Mercedes parked in one of the slots reserved for the company staff and one other car. Gerry’s Volvo was parked at an angle across one of the slots, not the one with his name on it. Priya had a sudden hope that Valerie wasn’t there, but she could have gotten a ride in with Gerry. Priya stared at the two cars and around at the hushed car park. The quiet was only broken by the occasional splash of oars in the river.

  Priya crept out of the car and walked into the building as fast as she could without running. Her shoes echoed across the empty lobby. The doors of the lift slid open and the now familiar voice droned its presence. Priya stepped into the small space, her reflected image creeping closer. She hoped whoever was in the building couldn’t hear the machinery whispering as the lift ascended the two floors. She thought they might hear the disembodied voice announce her arrival.

  The corridor was empty; all the doors leading into the offices and labs were closed except the door to Valerie’s office at the end. Despite expecting the voice, her heart jumped when she heard it again. It echoed in her head and she clutched the railing, her hand slipping in sweat and smoothness. She could not see movement in the office and it felt empty even from a distance so she concentrated on the other doors.

  The lab in which she had carried out her research was behind the second door and as she gripped the handle and opened the door, she said a silent prayer.

  She took in impressions as she scanned the room. The wall of glass behind the counters glared light into the lab. Reyna was sitting upright in a chair in front of the door, her eyes angry. Next to her, was the man Priya had seen at Michael’s apartment. This time he wore no yellow gloves, but in his right hand was a gun and he pointed it in the direction of Reyna’s head. The man stood so that he was not visible to any of the rowers on the river outside the bank of windows. Priya froze. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Gerry sitting on a stool, bent over equipment laid out on the counter. He was rigid, he hadn’t even moved when the door opened.

  The man gestured her in with his left hand and Priya walked further into the lab. His eyes were emotionless. The familiar smell of chemicals and cleanliness welcomed her. There was an iron scent in the air and she recognized the smell of blood, but she could not see any on Reyna or Gerry. As she moved past the aisle between the freestanding lab counters, she glimpsed a woman, sprawled motionless, a stain of blood leaking onto the crisp white tiles from her blonde head.

  The man gestured to Gerry.

  “He could do with a hand. And he tells me you’re the one who came up with the idea in the first place.” He spoke with that same flat confident tone that had terrified her when she was hiding in the hole beneath her tree.

  Priya hesitated, confused, and he smiled.

  “I know there’s no positive reinforcement here, you know, some kind of reward for the brilliant work you’re going to do this morning, but maybe you’ll both get some weird professional satisfaction. Along with saving your skins. And some pain.” He made a jabbing motion with the gun towards Reyna’s head and Priya gasped and moved quickly towards Gerry.

  “Priya, don’t.” Reyna’s voice was firm, but it was cut off with a cry of pain.

  Priya turned and clenched her fists as she saw that the man had silenced Reyna by shoving the gun into her mouth. He grinned at Priya’s face and nodded towards Gerry.

  There were ion study chambers on the counter in front of Gerry. What looked like a handheld controller was hooked up to an oscillometer and a portable keypad. The glow of the readout shone green on his forehead.

  Priya sat on the stool beside Gerry. He turned his head and through the grief and fear in his eyes, she saw a subdued madness. Like petrol just thrown on a fire that had been damped down for a long time, licks of flames curling at the edges. She looked behind her and she could see Valerie. The blood moved, a slight, but definite, movement, which meant she was still alive.

  Gerry’s hands on the table were shaking.

  Priya whispered, “Gerry, you’re going to have to pull yourself together. Tell me what’s going on.”

  Gerry glanced at the man and then looked back at Priya.

  The man said, from across the room, “Aren’t you going to fill her in on what you’ve accomplished. With her work.” He removed the gun from Reyna’s mouth and a bead of blood welled up from her upper lip and crept onto her lower lip.

  “My work, Gerry? My idea? What is he talking about?” Priya tried to so
und completely ignorant, as if she had no idea of what they were working on. She looked again at the equipment on the counter. There was a metal device the size of a matchbox lying against the wall at the back of the counter.

  Gerry remained silent, his lips trembled and the man laughed.

  “He wasn’t so shy when he sold us the idea. Was a good sell actually, had the early stage prototype that he had proved in action; he had the proof of concept for the new device. Everything is set to go. I don’t need to convince you of the urgency of my task.” He ran a finger along Reyna’s lips and smeared the blood into a macabre lipstick. “We have our own little ticking clock here that should be an incentive even if you don’t care about my deadlines.”

  Priya could see the anger clouding Reyna’s eyes and before Reyna could say anything, Priya said, keeping her voice as steady as she could, matching his tone,

  “I am not going to get any closer to whatever it is you want, and I’m certainly not going to be able to solve any problems if you hurt her again. And I need to do something about Valerie.”

  Priya moved to Valerie’s body. She found a pulse, weak, but present. Her hair hid most of the cut on her scalp and the volume of blood was frightening. Priya looked around the room and saw the first aid kit fixed to a bracket in the wall, alongside the emergency defibrillator many of which were now installed in public places around Ireland.

  Priya walked over to the first aid kit, ignoring the man, and brought it over to Valerie. Gerry seemed fixed in place, staring down at the blood. Priya used a full roll to bandage Valerie’s head. It would hold the bleeding for the moment. She couldn’t think of anything else to do for her.

  She turned to Gerry.

  “I need to know everything. Now.”

  Gerry rubbed his neck, which was already red. He wasn’t wearing a tie and his casual clothes looked like they had been thrown on.

  His voice was shaky when he started to speak.

  “I used your algorithm to develop something.”

  He reached over and picked up the matchbox-sized device.

  “It works by damaging the natural pacemaker. But it only works at extremely close proximity to the heart. I promised them a device that would work at a distance of 3 feet. And it’s almost ready.” Gerry shoved the bigger device, the one that looked like a handheld controller, a few inches along on the counter.

  His voice had grown stronger with every word and then his shoulders slumped.

  “I just can’t figure out that one last piece of the code.”

  Priya stared in puzzlement at the two devices.

  She said, “You developed something to damage the natural pacemaker? Why?” She felt nauseous.

  “Why do you think? I guess I should give you some credit. I had already mostly developed the early version, but your research helped me finish it and was crucial in setting me on the longer-range wireless path. You were developing the test scenarios for potential wireless attacks on installed pacemakers. I was able to expand on it to attack the natural pacemaker. It isn’t that commercially interesting to attack artificial pacemakers, I mean, what would the target be? Mostly older patients and you’d have to wait around for them to have a pacemaker installed. The first device works at close range to the target so the user doesn’t need protection. However, with this longer-range one, it will actually be the opposite; anyone without a pacemaker will die. Which, in a way, is a bit of a problem, but one we’ve been able to solve temporarily.”

  Priya sank down onto the stool.

  Priya turned back to Gerry. “He said you were able to prove the device in action.”

  Reyna said, “Daniel…?”

  Gerry’s eyes had been filled with pride as he spoke of his work. Now the pride was replaced with pain. He nodded.

  Gerry said, “I had to use the close range device.” He picked up the smaller device. “The long-range one isn’t ready, and I don’t have a pacemaker installed anyway.” He sighed. “Three wouldn’t stop digging, even when I told him his grandfather had sanctioned the development.”

  “No!” The word came from Reyna.

  Priya said, “There is no way that Dr. Fairer would sanction the development of a weapon.”

  Gerry said, “Three only found out in the last few months about the unfortunate accidents that had occurred with the Controller I, but his grandfather knew as soon as I discovered them. We had already released the Controller II so rather than recalling the Controller I, we made sure that all the Controller I’s were returned by offering a hefty discount on the Controller II.”

  A little more animation crept into Gerry’s voice. “The original fault was an aberration, easy enough to fix once we figured out what caused it. But the fault could still theoretically occur with the Controller II so we had to issue the patch, which we developed from your work. But the aberration gave me the idea for the device. And that’s really where your algorithm came in. And then when he came along and offered so much money,” Gerry shrugged, “well, I needed it. Dr. Fairer couldn’t very well say anything about it after he had helped conceal the problems. And he thought he was helping, you know, in the fight.”

  Reyna shook her head. “You killed Daniel? And grandfather knew?”

  “I had no choice with Three. Your grandfather didn’t know about it till afterwards. I had to do it. Three wouldn’t stop, even when I told him that your grandfather would be destroyed, that we would all be destroyed.”

  Gerry lowered his voice and whispered to Priya, “Dr. Fairer met him,” he gestured with his head to the man, “when he came to collect the plutonium from a decommissioned pacemaker. Supposed to be American government, but I don’t think what he’s doing has anything to do with the war on terror. Seems personal to me.”

  Priya said, “You were very close with Daniel. And you were able to get close enough to him to use that, that thing.” Her eyes widened as the thought came to her. “You’re the researcher Daniel had a thing with, not Valerie.”

  Gerry looked puzzled.

  “Me? No. We were friends. Close friends. What do you mean? Valerie?”

  Gerry looked at Valerie’s prone figure.

  “He was a bit agitated to see me that evening. There had been a woman there with him; it was obvious he had been in bed when I arrived.” Gerry seemed to be thinking aloud. He shook his head.

  “We don’t have time for this. They are expecting the device to be ready and working by tomorrow at the latest. It has to be delivered before the 28th.”

  “Gerry!” Priya felt her voice rise.

  The man, who had let them talk, now spoke. “We have had to lose some people to ensure the utmost secrecy. Personally, I don’t work this way, but we’ve had to clean up the mess your friend here created when he left his area of expertise. All our work, all our planning, it comes down to this. Whether you can get the long-range device working in the next few hours. Right now, that is what you need to focus on. If I could use the other device I would, but we cannot get closer to the target without suspicion. And that is one thing we cannot afford. Even a hint of suspicion would defeat the purpose, make all our efforts meaningless.”

  Priya glared at the man. “You killed Michael. Why?”

  He grimaced. “It almost worked. Would have been too obvious to kill you then. There can be absolutely no comeback from this. Gerry here suggested a tactic he had successfully used before to throw you off track. You just turned up early. I had an interesting diversion planned so that the cops would have been right outside the door when you found your friend. A little strategic feeding of information into the right ears and you’d have been banged up as a raving lunatic and murderer. We’ve been searching for your PhD papers. But we have you now.”

  Priya thought she might be sick if she looked at Gerry. “What tactic did he use before?”

  Gerry said, “I know you spent the last while blaming yourself for Kathy’s death. And I know it was a high price for you to pay for being in the right place at the wrong time.”

&nbs
p; She looked at him in confusion.

  He said, “I couldn’t risk you figuring out what you had found. And then when that woman had an affair with Valerie and wouldn’t stop calling, it just came to me. I needed a test case for the first device, I needed you to leave that particular field of study, and I needed to punish that woman.”

  Priya could hear him speaking, but the words still made no sense.

  “That woman? Kathy?”

  He nodded.

  “But she killed herself. From what they said, there was a lot of blood, she used razors.”

  “How many times had she called you before that? What, once every few weeks. I heard her on the phone to Valerie the last few times. Poor Valerie, she didn’t want anything to do with that woman. I think it had just been a curiosity thing on Valerie’s part you know. I don’t think anything really happened, but that woman wouldn’t let it go. When she called the second time that night I knew you hadn’t gone to her. I went in. I’m afraid I had to do the cutting before I used the device. This was one situation I needed it not to look like a heart attack.”

  Priya turned and retched. She hadn’t eaten and nothing came out except a spurt of acid and saliva. She leaned against the counter and held a hand to her mouth. She realized her face was wet with tears. She wondered if she was going to faint and she could hear Reyna’s voice calling her through a fog.

  Gerry was still talking.

  “You went off the rails. Even better result than I could have hoped for.” He shook his head. “It was a real pity though, you know, you were the brightest of the lot. God! Priya, think about what we could have done if we could have worked together.”

  The man said, “Like you’re going to do now. If you both are all that bright, it shouldn’t take long.”

  Gerry smiled. “I always liked a challenge.”

  Gerry patted her hand and her skin crawled. The sun had chased the shadows off the counter and his skin glowed pale against hers.

  Priya realized that if he had been crawling at the edge of madness for the last few years, he had just jumped off the cliff.