by J. D. Robb
Roarke remained silent as the disc ran out. He didn’t remove it, certain his fingers would crush it like powder.
“I’ve already hurt him,” he said at length. “But not enough. Not nearly enough.” He turned to Mavis. She’d risen and stood, small as a fairy, her slip-shouldered dress of pink gauze somehow valiant. “You aren’t responsible for this,” Roarke told her.
“Maybe that’s true. I have to work that out. But I know he wouldn’t have gotten that close to her, or you, without me. Will that help keep him in a cage?”
“I think he’ll hear the lock turn and wait a long time before he hears it open again. You’ll leave it with me?”
“Yeah. I’ll get out of your hair now.”
“You’re always welcome here.”
Her mouth quirked. “If it wasn’t for Dallas, you’d have run like hell in the opposite direction the first time you saw me.”
He came to her, kissed her firmly on that crooked mouth. “That would have been my mistake—and my loss. I’ll call a car for you.”
“You don’t have to—”
“A car will be waiting for you at the front entrance.”
She rubbed a hand under her nose. “One of those mag limos?”
“Absolutely.”
He walked her to the door, closed it thoughtfully behind her. The disc would be enough, he hoped, to drive another nail in Jess. But it still didn’t point to murder. He went back, ordered both of his machines to display on screen.
Sitting behind his desk, he picked up the VR goggles and studied the data.
Eve lowered her gaze to the stunner. From her angle, she couldn’t be sure which setting was clicked. A sudden move, she knew, could result in anything from mild discomfort and partial paralysis to death.
“It’s illegal for a civilian to own or operate that weapon,” she said coolly.
“I don’t believe that’s particularly relevant, under the circumstances. Take yours out, Eve, slowly, and by the fingertips. Then set it on the desk. I don’t want to hurt you,” Reeanna added when Eve made no move to obey. “I never have. Not really. But I’ll do whatever’s necessary.”
Keeping her eyes on Reeanna’s, Eve reached slowly for her side arm.
“And don’t think about trying to use it. I don’t have this on max, but it is on a very high setting. You won’t have use of your extremities for days, and though the possible brain damage isn’t necessarily permanent, it is very inconvenient.”
Eve knew very well what the stunner could do, and she took out her weapon carefully, laid it on the corner of the desk. “You’ll have to kill me, Reeanna. But you’ll have to do it face to face, in person. It won’t be like the others.”
“I’m going to try to avoid that. A short, painless, even enjoyable session on VR, and we can adjust your memory and direct your target. You’re well aimed at Jess, Eve. Why don’t we just keep it that way?”
“Why did you kill those four people, Reeanna?”
“They killed themselves, Eve. You were right there when Cerise Devane jumped off that building. One has to believe what one sees with one’s own eyes.” She sighed. “Or most do. You’re not most, are you?”
“Why did you kill them?”
“I merely encouraged them to end their lives in a certain manner at a certain time. And why?” Reeanna shrugged her lovely shoulders. “Why, because I could.”
She smiled beautifully and gave her bell tinkle of a laugh.
chapter twenty
It wouldn’t take long, Eve calculated, for Peabody or Feeney to home in on her signal. She just needed time. And she had a feeling Reeanna would provide it. Some egos, like some people, fed on regular admiration. Reeanna fit on both levels.
“Did you work with Jess?”
“That amateur.” Reeanna tossed her hair at the idea. “He’s a piano player. Not that he doesn’t have a certain talent for basic engineering, but he lacks vision—and guts,” she added with a slow, feline smile. “Women are so much more courageous and more vicious than men, all in all. Don’t you agree?”
“No. I think courage and viciousness have no gender.”
“Well.” Disappointed, Reeanna pursed her lips briefly. “In any case, I corresponded with him briefly a couple of years ago. We exchanged ideas, theories. The anonymity of underground E-services are handy. I enjoyed his pontificating and was able to flatter him into sharing some of his technical progress. But I was well ahead of him. Frankly, I never thought he’d get as far as he apparently has. Simple mood expanding, I imagine, with some direct suggestion.” She cocked her head. “Close enough?”
“You went farther.”
“Oh, leagues. Why don’t you sit down, Eve? We’d both be more comfortable.”
“I’m comfortable on my feet.”
“As you like. But a few steps back, if you don’t mind.” She gestured with the stunner. “I wouldn’t want you to try for your weapon. I’d have to use this, and I’d hate to lose such a good audience.”
Eve took a step back. She thought of Roarke, several floors above. He wouldn’t come down to seek her out. At least she didn’t have that concern. If anything, he’d call down if he locked onto something. So he was safe, and she could stall.
“You’re a medical doctor,” Eve pointed out. “A psychiatrist. You’ve spent years studying to help the human condition. Why take lives, Reeanna, when you’re trained to save them?”
“Branded at conception perhaps.” She smiled. “Oh, you don’t like that theory. You’d have used it to push your case, but you don’t like it. You don’t know where you came from, or from what.” She saw Eve’s eyes flicker and nodded, pleased. “I’ve studied all available data on Eve Dallas as soon as I learned Roarke was involved with you. I’m very attached to Roarke, once toyed with the idea of making our all-too-brief liaison into something more permanent.”
“He dumped you?”
The smile froze as the insult hit target. “That’s beneath you, such a petty female hit. No, he didn’t. We simply drifted in opposite directions. I had intended to drift back, let’s say, eventually. So I was intrigued when he took such an avid interest in a cop, of all things. Not his usual taste, certainly not his usual style. But you are. . . interesting. More so after I accessed data on you.”
She made herself comfortable on the arm of the relaxation chair. The weapon stayed aimed and steady. “The young, abused child found in a Dallas alley. Broken, battered, confused. No memory of how she’d gotten there, who’d beat her, raped her, abandoned her. A blank. I found that fascinating. No past, no parents, no hint of what made her. I’m going to enjoy studying you.”
“You won’t get your hands in my head.”
“Oh, but I will. You’ll even suggest it yourself, once you take a trip or two on the unit I’ve made just for you. I really hate that I’m going to have to see to it that you forget everything we discuss here. You have such a keen mind, such a strong energy. But it will give us a chance to work together. As fond as I am of William, he’s so . . . short-sighted.”
“How involved is he?”
“He has no idea. The first test I ran on the doctored unit was on William. Quite a success, and it made things so much easier. I could direct him to adjust each unit I wanted. He’s quicker, more adept electronically than I. He actually helped me refine the design and personalize the one I sent to Senator Pearly.”
“Why?”
“Another test. He was very vocal about the misuse of subliminals. He enjoyed games, as I’m sure you’ve discovered, but he continually pushed for regulations. Censorship, if you ask me. He stuck his nose into pornography, consenting adult dual controls, commercial advertising and its use of suggestion, all manner of things. I thought of him as my sacrificial lamb.”
“How did you gain access to his brain pattern?”
“William. He’s very clever. It took him several weeks of intense work, but he managed to hack through security.” She angled her head, enjoying the moment. “At the top level of NY
PSD as well. He injected a virus there. Just to keep your EDD men occupied.”
“And that’s where you accessed my pattern.”
“Indeed it is. He has a soft heart, my William, it would pain him horribly to know he had a vital part in coercion.”
“But you used him, you made him part of it. And it doesn’t pain you at all.”
“No, it doesn’t. William made it all possible. And if not him, there would have been another.”
“He loves you. You can see it.”
“Oh please.” It made her laugh. “He’s a puppy. All men are when it comes to an attractive female form. They simply sit up and beg. That’s amusing, occasionally irritating, and always useful.” Intrigued, she touched her tongue to her top lip. “Don’t tell me you haven’t used your basic female advantage on Roarke.”
“We don’t use each other.”
“You’re missing a simple advantage.” But Reeanna flicked it away. “The esteemed Dr. Mira would label me a sociopath with violent tendencies and a driving need for control. A pathological liar with an unhealthy, even dangerous fascination with death.”
Eve waited a beat. “And would you agree with that analysis, Dr. Ott?”
“Yes, indeed. My mother self-terminated when I was six. My father never got over it. He turned me over to my grandparents and wandered off to heal. I don’t believe he ever did. But I saw my mother’s face after she’d taken the lethal handful of pills. She looked quite beautiful and very happy. So why shouldn’t death, taken, be an enjoyable experience.”
“Try it,” Eve suggested, “and see.” Then she smiled. “I’ll help you.”
“One day, perhaps. After I’ve completed my study.”
“We’re laboratory rats then; not toys, not games, but experiments. Droids for dissecting.”
“Yes. Young Drew. I regretted that because he was young and had potential. I’d consulted with him, rashly I see now, when William and I were working on the Olympus Resort. He fell in love with me. So young. I was flattered, and William’s very tolerant of outside distractions.”
“He just knew too much, so you sent him a modified unit and told him to hang himself.”
“Basically. It wouldn’t have been necessary, but he didn’t want to let the relationship die. It meant he had to, before he lost that glaze infatuation puts over a man’s eyes, and looked too closely.”
“You stripped your victims,” Eve added. “The final humiliation?”
“No.” Reeanna appeared shocked and insulted by the idea. “Not at all. Basic symbolism. We’re born naked, and naked we die. We complete the circle. Drew died happy. They all did. No suffering, no pain at all. Joy, in fact. I’m not a monster, Eve. I’m a scientist.”
“No, you’re a monster, Reeanna. And these days, society puts their monsters in a cage and keeps them there. You won’t be happy in a cage.”
“It won’t happen. Jess will pay. You’ll fight to put him there after my report tomorrow. And if you can’t make the coercion charges stick, you’ll always believe he was responsible. And when there are others, I’ll be very select, very careful, and I’ll see to it that each subject self-terminates well out of your range. You won’t be bothered by it again.”
“You arranged for two in my range.” A sickness churned in her stomach. “To get my attention.”
“In part. I did want to watch you at work. Watch you closely, step by step. Just to see if you were as good as reported. You detested Fitzhugh, and I thought why not do my new friend Eve a little favor? He was a pompous ass, an irritant to society, and a very poor game player. I wanted his death to be bloody. He preferred blood games, you know. I never met him in person, but matched with him in cyberspace now and again. A poor loser.”
“He had family,” Eve managed. “Like Pearly, Mathias, and Cerise Devane.”
“Oh, life goes on.” She waved a dismissing hand. “All will adjust. That’s human nature. And as for Cerise, she was no more maternal than an alley cat. It was all ambition with her. She bored me senseless. The most entertainment she ever provided was dying on camera. What a smile. They all smiled. That was my little joke—and my gift to them. The final suggestion. Die, it’s so beautiful, it’s amusing, and so joyful. Die and experience the pleasure. They died experiencing the pleasure.”
“They died with a frozen smile and a burn on the brain.”
Reeanna’s brows drew together. “What do you mean, a burn?”
Where the hell was her backup? How much longer could she stall? “You didn’t know about that? Your little experiment has a slight defect, Reeanna. It burns a hole in the frontal lobe, leaves what we could call a shadow. Or a fingerprint. Your fingerprint.”
“That’s nothing.” But she worried her lip as she considered it. “The intensity of the subliminal could cause that, I suppose. It has to get in, firmly, to bypass the instinctive resistance, the knee-jerk survival instinct. We’ll have to work on that, see what can be adjusted.” Annoyance shadowed her eyes. “William will have to do better. I don’t like flaws.”
“Your experiment’s full of them. You have to control William to continue. How many times have you used the system on him, Reeanna? Would continued use expand that burn? I wonder what kind of damage it could cause.”
“It can be fixed.” She tapped the fingers of her free hand on her thigh, distracted. “He’ll fix it. I’ll do a new scan on him, study the flaw—if he has one. Repair it.”
“Oh, he’ll have one.” Eve stepped closer, judging the distance, the risk. “They all had one. And if you can’t repair William’s, you’ll probably have to terminate him. You couldn’t risk that flaw becoming larger, causing uncontrolled behavior. Could you?”
“No. No. I’ll look into this immediately. Tonight.”
“It may already be too late.”
Reeanna’s eyes snapped back. “Adjustments can be made. Will be made. I haven’t come this far, accomplished this much, to accept any sort of failure.”
“And yet to succeed fully, you’ll have to control me, and I won’t make it easy.”
“I already have your brain pattern,” Reeanna reminded her. “I’ve already implemented your program. It’s going to be very easy.”
“I’ll surprise you,” Eve promised. “And Roarke. You can’t manufacture without him, and he’ll find out. Do you expect to control him as well?”
“That will be a particular pleasure. I did have to adjust the time schedule. I’d hoped to enjoy him first. A little trip, you might say, down memory lane. Roarke’s so creative in bed. We haven’t taken time to compare those notes, but I’m sure you’ll agree.”
It put Eve’s teeth on edge, but she spoke coolly. “Using your toy for sexual gratification, Dr. Ott? How unscientific.”
“And what fun. I’m not the master William is, but I do enjoy a good, creative game.”
“And that’s how you met all your victims.”
“So far. Through the loops and the underground. Games can be relaxing and entertaining. And both William and I agreed that processing input from players would help us develop more creative options for the new VR.” She fluffed at her hair. “Not that anyone had in mind what I was creating.”
Her gaze shifted to the monitor, frowned over the data being transmitted from Roarke’s office. He was processing the VR specs now, she noted. “But you’ve already got Roarke digging. Not just on young Drew, but on the unit itself. I wasn’t happy about that, but there are always ways around inconveniences.” Her smile tilted up at the corners. “Roarke isn’t as necessary as you believe. Who do you suppose will own all of this if something happened to him?”
She laughed again, pure delight, as Eve stared blankly.
“Why, you will, darling. It will all be yours, in your control, and therefore mine. Don’t worry, I won’t let you stay a widow long. We’ll find someone for you. I’ll choose him personally.”
Terror froze her blood, iced her muscles, closed frigidly around her heart. “You made a unit for him.”
She shot a stream at Eve’s feet, anticipating her. “Don’t. I’ll just stun you, and this will take longer.”
“I’ll kill you with my own hands.” Eve forced air in and out of her lungs, ordered herself to think. “I swear it.”
In his office, Roarke frowned over the data he’d converted. Missing something, he thought. What am I missing?
He rubbed the strain out of his eyes, sat back. He needed a break, he decided. Clear the mind, rest the eyes. Picking up the VR unit on his desk, he turned it over in his hands.
“You won’t chance it. If you do, and I stun you, you’ll never get to him in time. There’s always the hope you can stop it, save him.” Her smile spread again, derisively. “You see, I understand you, Eve, perfectly.”
“Do you?” Eve asked, and instead of lunging forward, leaped back. “Lights out,” she shouted, snatching for her weapon as the room pitched into darkness. She felt the slight sting as Reeanna’s aim wavered, skimmed her shoulder.
Then she was down, blocked by the desk, and gritting her teeth against the pain. She’d rolled fast, but not well, and had come down hard on her bad knee.
“I’m better at this than you,” Eve said calmly. But the fingers in her right hand tingled and shook, forcing her to switch the weapon to her left. “You’re the amateur here. Ditch the weapon, and I might not kill you.”
“Kill me?” Reeanna’s voice was a hiss. “You’ve got too much cop programmed into you. Maximum force only when all other methods fail.”
Near the door, Eve told herself, holding her breath, training her ears. To the right of it. “There’s no one here but you and me. Who’s to know?”