by Rebecca York
“Who are you?”
“I’m Mack Bradley.”
“Are you a security guard?”
Mack looked to Lily, and she gave an almost imperceptible shake of her head.
“I’m Lily’s husband,” he said.
“Oh yeah. Well I can tell from your expressions there’s something fishy going on. What are you hiding?”
“Nothing. You need to know what happened and where you are now.”
“I know where I’m am,” Corker shot back. “I’m in hell, and you’re trying to get me to relax so you can torture me.”
“No. Of course not.”
“I’m dead.”
“No.”
Ignoring her reassurance, he plowed on, “I know all those heavy boxes hit me. And you can’t fool me. I know where I ended up.”
“You’re not dead, and you’re not in hell,” Lily said in a voice that she hoped was reassuring.
Corker sat up, glancing around the small room as though he was looking for an escape route.
“We’re here to help you,” Lily said, glad that she had thought to prepare this room, “You were injured, and you’re . . . better.”
“You’re lying.”
At that moment, the door flew open, and Shelly burst into what was supposed to be a private encounter. The little girl had a gleeful expression on her face as she ran toward Lily.
“See, Anna was right. You’re here. She told me you were here.”
Lily felt her face go rigid with shock. Obviously the computer program knew that she was coming with a new patient, but she hadn’t expected her sister to find out about it and rush to see her. Behind her, she could see Anna, the simulated nursemaid who kept the rambunctious child from getting into too much trouble.
Before Lily could react, the man on the couch leaped up. “Demon,” he shouted as he launched himself at the little girl.
“No,” Lily screamed as she leaped into his path, trying to block him.
Mack jumped up as well, putting himself between Lily, Shelly and the maddened patient. The guy came out swinging and hit him in the chest.
Trying to keep from getting socked in the jaw, Mack shoved the guy away. He bounced back, colliding with Lily, who came down hard on the floor, banging her back painfully against the edge of the sofa. For long moments, she lay stunned.
The scene of chaos gave the new patient an opening. Pushing himself up, he shoved Mack out of the way and made for the door again. The frantic series of attacks and responses might have been a scene from an action comedy movie, except that none of it was funny.
“Anna, take Shelly out of here,” Lily cried out as Mack grabbed for Corker.
oOo
In the lab, Jenny heard Grant make a startled sound. Something was happening, but she couldn’t see what it was because Terry Montrose had crowded in closer, their bodies blocking her view of the monitor.
Obviously things weren’t going the way anybody had expected.
“Mack, what do you need?” Grant called out.
Jenny didn’t stay to hear the answer. Thinking that she couldn’t have arranged things better if she’d tried, she slipped along the wall, then out into the reception area.
She felt a pang of worry—and guilt. Lily and Mack must be in trouble, but it was only in the VR, she reminded herself. Nothing permanent could happen to them there, could it?
From what Lily had told the patients, Jenny knew Dr. Hamilton’s original lab was in a fancy office building in Bethesda. Grant had said they’d been moved to a much more modest facility in an industrial park between Baltimore and Washington.
The lobby was pretty small. She stuck close to the wall, using it to keep herself steady as she approached a security desk.
To her relief, it was unmanned, because security was lighter here than at Hamilton’s facility. Mack had gone into the VR with Lily, and Grant had stationed himself where he could monitor the situation. Now they were both busy with whatever emergency Lily had encountered when she’d tried to introduce the new guy into the Mirador environment.
That knowledge brought another pang of guilt. Since they were running a minimal operation unknown to the public, they thought they didn’t need a lot of protection. But they didn’t know that some very bad men were looking for Jenny Seville. Well, not Seville, she reminded herself. That wasn’t her real name. And she was praying that would keep them from figuring out where she was.
She took a deep breath, wavering on her feet as she bent over the desk and started opening drawers. Grant had told her they kept weapons here as a precaution, and she found an automatic pistol in the top middle drawer. Taking it was another reason to feel guilty, but she did it anyway.
She checked the action, put the gun into Lily’s purse, and headed for the door. Outside she found herself facing a narrow parking lot, backed by ugly one-story cinder-block buildings, with a strip of grass along the margin. After the blue skies of the Mirador Hotel, it was startling to see gray clouds hiding the sun. And after the sparking clean grounds of the hotel, the warehouse area looked grubby.
The heat was another shock to her system. At the Mirador, the temperature was always a pleasant seventy degrees. Now the full force of a Maryland summer enveloped her. It was like stepping into an overused laundry room, and she struggled to draw in a full breath of air.
The change of scene was a shock, but this was the real world, where she’d have to function now. And she’d taken a lot of chances getting to this point.
She didn’t know which car was Mack and Lily’s, but she pressed the unlock button on the ignition key and heard a chirp. Pressing several more times, she followed the sound to a newish-looking Honda.
After clicking once more, she opened the door and slipped into the fiery interior. When she leaned back against the headrest, the hot seat cover burned her neck, and she hunched forward, taking several deep breaths of the overheated air. She was amazed that she had gotten this far, but it wasn’t far enough. At any moment, Grant could come charging out of the building shouting at her to come back.
Knowing she had to get away, she turned the ignition, hoping the air conditioning was going to cool the car soon. She had to get away from the lab and find somewhere to hole up. But how far could she go in this condition?
After wiping sweat from her forehead with the back of her arm, she glanced toward the building, but apparently nobody had discovered her absence yet. Taking a chance on staying a little longer, she clicked on the GPS. It displayed a map of the area, and she saw that the industrial park was off a major north-south highway—Route 1. There ought to be convenient motels out there, but she’d better not pick the first one she came to.
She closed her eyes for a moment, praying that she had the strength to do this—and that she wasn’t going to die of heatstroke before the AC kicked in. Then she backed cautiously out of the parking space.
oOo
To Lily’s dismay, Corker made it out of the door and into the lobby. Apparently the large, luxurious space was not what he was expecting. He stopped short and cried out in surprise, giving Mack the opportunity to catch and push him down to the marble floor.
The man had been unconscious for several weeks, and although his status had changed in the VR, he was in no shape to fight a guy who worked out regularly in the real world.
“Lily, can you get a hypo?” Mack shouted.
“I’m coming. Hold him.”
As she spoke, Lily crawled to the table next to the couch and fumbled in the drawer. When she found the other hypodermic, she pushed herself up, stumbled into the lobby and jammed the needle into his arm. For a terrifying half minute, he continued to struggle against Mack. Then he suddenly went slack, and Mack grabbed him by the shoulders, pulled him into the greeting room, and eased him to the sofa, where he lay sprawled.
“Thanks,” Lily said.
“I guess he’s not in as good mental shape as you thought. You should ship him to that facility you have in reserve.”
“W
e may have to,” Lily said as she crossed the room and hurried into the hotel lobby.
She saw Paula Rendell and Anna crouched on either side of Shelly who was sobbing, tears running down her cheeks.
Lily ran to her sister, knelt down and reached for the little girl who came into her arms, still crying.
“I didn’t do anything to that man, but he wanted to hurt me,” Shelly sobbed.
“No. He was scared of you.”
“Why?”
“He’s confused. But it’s okay. I put him to sleep. Everything’s okay,” Lily soothed as she gathered her little sister close, stroking her back. Shelly’s auto accident had been when she was eight. That was more than twenty years ago, but the girl’s mental development had been arrested at that age. She would never mature. She would always react like a child. And though her body had become a woman’s in the real world, in the VR she still looked like the youngster she had been when she was injured.
Overcome with guilt for having put her sister in danger, Lily rocked the little girl in her arms. “It’s okay, sweetheart.”
“That man scared me.”
“I know. But he can’t hurt you now. Uncle Mack and I put him to sleep,” she repeated what she’d said.
Gradually, Shelly’s crying subsided. She looked up at Lily, her expression troubled. “I didn’t know I shouldn’t go in there.”
“Yes. It was a mistake for me not to tell Anna. But it’s okay.”
“Why was he so mad?”
“He was afraid. And he reacted by getting mad.”
Shelly bobbed her head.
Over her shoulder, Lily regarded Anna who looked like she wished she could sink into the floor. “I didn’t know that was wrong,” she said.
“It’s not your fault,” Lily answered, feeling a little strange reassuring a woman who was only part of an elaborate computer program. “Next time we’ll make sure you know we need privacy.”
“You were bringing in a new patient?” Paula asked.
“Yes.”
The travel agent kept her gaze on Lily. “And it didn’t go so well.”
“Unfortunately.”
“So he’s not coming in after all?”
“I’m not giving up so quickly,” Lily answered.
Mack, who had been standing back while she comforted her sister made a rough sound. “Oh please. He’s a menace.”
“I don’t want to just give up on him,” she repeated. “I’d like to try again after using a tranquilizer. If I can convince him he’s not in hell . . .”
“Yeah, and you have to wonder why he thought he should go there. I mean what did he do in life that was so bad?”
“It could have been something very minor—if he belonged to a strict religious sect. Or his parents could have drummed the concept of sin into him.”
Mack made a snorting sound. He looked like he wanted to argue. Instead, he pressed his lips together.
“He was scary,” Shelly said.
“I would never let him hurt you,” Lily said, then looked at Anna. “Why don’t you take Shelly down to the ice cream parlor?”
When Art had designed the Mirador, he had copied a hotel he had visited in India. The luxury location had been a nice starting point, but since the patients had arrived, they and Lily had made suggestions for additions to improve the environs where they were confined.
The Ice Cream Shop was one of Lily’s suggestions.
“Can you come, too?” Shelly asked, a pleading tone in her voice. “I thought I was gonna get to hang out with you when I heard you were coming to the hotel.”
Lily debated. There was nothing she could do for Corker at the moment, and maybe spending a little time with her sister after the traumatic incident was a good idea.
She glanced at Mack. “We can take a few minutes, I think.”
“Okay.”
The whole group headed to the other side of the lobby, then out onto one of the covered colonnades that were a feature of the hotel architecture. In the heat of the actual Indian environment they would have provided needed shade. At the Mirador they were purely decorative.
The adults strolled along. Shelly skipped beside them, obviously feeling a lot better than when she’d come into the arrival room.
As they drew near the ice cream parlor, Shelly reached for Lily’s hand.
“You’re not mad at me, are you?” she asked.
Lily looked down at the little girl. “Of course not.”
“But I wasn’t supposed to go into that room.”
“It wasn’t your fault.”
They reached the Ice Cream Shop, which was patterned after pictures Lily has seen in an old magazine from the fifties. It had chairs with bent-wire backs, round tables with marble tops, and a black and white patterned floor. White lattice panels decorated the walls.
A young man behind the counter snapped to attention as they came in. He was another one of the staff who had been added to the program.
“Help you?” he asked.
“What flavors do you have?” Paula asked.
“This week we have chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, chocolate chip . . .”
“Do you have the mocha almond I asked for?” Paula interrupted.
“Yes.”
Shelly got her usual—chocolate chip with various toppings. Paula got her request. Lily chose strawberry, and Mack asked for his usual chocolate. It amused Lily to note that Anna copied Shelly’s choice. Although the simulacrum couldn’t taste the treat, she did a nice job of appearing to enjoy herself.
Recovered from her earlier shock, Shelly chattered about the fun things she’d been doing. Although Lily tried to relax, she was having trouble concentrating. She was still thinking about Corker and what she could do to help him.
Was his brain too damaged to function here? Was there some way to ease him into the environment? Could she arrange therapy sessions for him? And why, exactly, did he think he’d ended up in hell? She’d studied his background and thought he was okay, but perhaps he’d done some clandestine things that made him dangerous to the other patients here.
Everybody was down to the last quarter of their ice cream when Lily’s phone vibrated.
She saw from the screen that the call was from Terry Montrose.
Excusing herself, she stepped into the colonnade.
As soon as she clicked the phone button, Terry’s voice came through low and urgent.
“Lily, I’m afraid we’ve got a problem.”
Chapter Seven
“What’s wrong?” Lily asked.
“Jenny Seville is missing.”
“What? Did I hear that right?”
Mack had come out and was standing close enough to Lily to hear Terry say, “Jenny Seville isn’t in her bed.”
“That’s impossible.”
“She’s not there.”
“We’ll be right over.” Lily darted back into the ice cream parlor, stopping short when she saw the alarm on Shelly’s face.
“Something bad happened,” the little girl said.
“Nothing to do with you. It’s about the place where I work. I have to go back now, but you can finish your ice cream with Anna and Paula.”
“When will you be back?”
“I’m not sure, but soon.”
Mack was waiting for her outside, and they hurried back to the main part of the hotel. On the way, she called Terry. “Bring Corker back to his bed. We’ll come through the dedicated interface.”
Upstairs in her bedroom, she stepped into the portal that they could use as a passage between the VR and the lab.
Moments after setting the controls, she was back in her bed and sitting up.
And Mack wasn’t far behind her.
The moment Lily came back to her body, she felt a throbbing headache.
Ignoring it, she detached the medical gear and lowered herself to the floor. Mack did the same.
“Where have you looked?” she asked Terry, who was standing beside her bed, his expression apologetic
.
“I . . . I was afraid to leave the other patients. Grant is searching the building.”
“Okay.” She wanted to rail at the man, but she didn’t see any point in blaming this on him. All of them had been focused on Corker. And none of them had been paying any attention to Jenny or the other patients.
But now that Lily reflected on it, she realized the young woman had been behaving oddly for some time. Lily had noted she was close to waking up, and she’d assumed the young woman was afraid to rejoin the real world. Apparently it was just the opposite. She’d been planning to rejoin the world—on her own terms.
And the crisis with Corker had given her the perfect opportunity.
“I’m so sorry,” Terry said.
“We all are,” Lily answered before she and Mack headed for the locker room to get dressed. When she stepped inside, she stopped short.
“What?” Mack asked.
“My clothes are missing.”
“Jesus.”
“She must have taken them. I think we can be sure she was planning this for a while.” She went to the supply shelves and took down a pair of scrub pants and a shirt, which she pulled on. When she opened her locker, she got another shock.
Mack was in the process of pulling on his shirt when he heard her gasp.
“What?”
“My purse is missing.”
“Christ.”
Grant strode into the dressing room but stopped when he saw that Lily was still securing the waistband of the pants. “Sorry.”
“I’m decent,” she answered. “Did you search the building?”
He looked sick when he said, “She’s definitely gone. And your car is missing.” He muttered a curse. “And so is a gun from the security desk out front.”
The three of them looked at each other.
Grant made an angry sound. “I knew she was worried about something.”
“All along it seemed like she was hiding out in the VR,” Mack said. “When we all woke up there the first time, she didn’t even want to tell us her name.”
“Yeah,” Grant muttered. “She was using the VR for a bolt-hole. Then she must have decided it wasn’t safe to stay. I guess that’s why she wanted all that self-defense training.” He ran a shaky hand through his hair. “I wanted to help her, dammit. But I just couldn’t get her to open up.”