by Diana Ryan
My eyes and heart sank down to the ground. When would I be able to kiss Ava again?
Finally, the elevator came to a stop and the door opened, breaking up their kiss. Darcy pulled away abruptly and, without giving Drew another glance, walked confidently through a dark and empty waiting area before us. She punched another code into the keypad on the wall, and a steel door slid open with a hiss of pressure being released. Darcy walked through the door, and it slid shut the second her heels cleared the threshold, leaving us in the dim room all by ourselves.
Drew stood stunned, still shocked from the kiss. “God,” he said, wiping his lips with the back of his hand, “women really know how to mess with us guys, don’t they? One second I want to smash her face in and now I want to—” He scrunched up his nose and made some movement with his hips, but I quickly cut him off.
“Hold it right there, hound dog. Let’s see if we can get out of this place alive before you start planning your next overnighter with Darcy.”
Our instructions were to stay, so we sat on the floor to the right of the elevator doors and contemplated what we might be facing when we were allowed through the door.
It wasn’t long before I began feeling jittery. “I can’t just sit here and wait.” I stood up and paced the perimeter of the room.
“Dude. Relax. We’ve gotta let her set us up before we storm the castle.”
He was right. I sat back down, but had trouble calming myself.
It was more than thirty excruciating minutes before we heard Mathy’s voice in our ears. “Raven, Outlier. We’re…par…arage. Can’t…we…code…”
Drew pressed the button on his earpiece. “Sir, you’re breaking up.”
“…hold post…ission tech…cryption.”
“We’re deep under the park.” I looked up at the ceiling, thinking about what was above our heads, and then took out my phone. “I’ve got no reception.”
“Guess we’re on our own down here,” Drew said, pocketing his phone. “Wonder how long she’s going to take back there,” he said, pointing at the door Darcy had walked through.
With his arm extended it was easy to notice. “The watch,” I said, pointing. “It’s counting down.”
Drew studied the face for a moment. “It’s at twenty-nine minutes and twenty-seven seconds.” He put the watch up to his ear and then jumped up from the ground quickly like he had just sat on a bee’s nest. “That bitch! It’s a bomb!” Drew frantically attempted to get the watch off, but there was no traditional watch fastener, only a tiny box with an up and down arrow button.
“Stop! If it is a bomb, we need to be careful. Come here.” I waved for Drew to move his arm near my hands. I carefully studied the watch, and when I put it to my ear it sounded just like a watch and nothing more. “I don’t think it’s a bomb. But I do think she wants us to do something in the next twenty-eight and a half minutes.”
Drew screamed at his wrist, “Why are so you cryptic, Darcy?”
And as if she had heard him, the watch spoke to us. “Adam’s coming back to let you through the door. Follow his instructions carefully. Oh, and check the cabinet.”
Drew yelled at the watch, “Darcy! Darcy, can you hear me?” He lifted the watch to his ear but heard nothing.
“Check the cabinet?” I repeated, perplexed. I turned around, looking for any kind of storage unit, but found nothing.
Almost immediately the heavy, metal door began to slowly slide open. Drew and I approached the entrance and as soon as Adam’s face appeared in my sight I punched him hard in the jaw.
Man, that felt good.
He fell to the floor and I stood over him, looking down on the punk. “That’s for trying to steal my girl.” He groaned and rolled over from his side to his back. Although I knew this would be the perfect vantage point from which to kick him squarely in the nuts, I knew I needed Adam to help me get Ava out of Myers’s grip. I offered a hand to help him up.
He reluctantly accepted and stood, rubbing his jaw. “I don’t think I deserved that, mate.”
“Are you really a double?” I asked quietly.
“This is not the place,” Adam replied grumpily. Then he turned and led us through a clean, grey metal hallway with curved walls like a tunnel. A strip of blue lights glowed at the point where the wall met the floor.
At the end of the hall Adam stopped in front of a door cracked open to give us more instructions. “We’re going to have to take out the guards on the other side so they don’t alarm Myers to your presence.”
“Hey, you know anything about this watch?” Drew held out his wrist for Adam to see. “It’s Darcy’s.”
“No,” he said barely looking. “After we take out the guards, we’ll advance through and enter the viewing room outside the operating room where Myers is holding Ava. Darcy’s in there with her right now.”
I felt that familiar nervous feeling zooming around in my belly, mixed with adrenaline, sleepiness, and anger. I was a complete emotional mess and wasn’t sure if I could handle what was in store for me.
“Why is he holding her?” Drew asked. “If he wanted her dead, why hasn’t he done it already?”
“He’s preparing to take a sample of her DNA. He’s not sure, but believes she might be one of the Desirable Eight. All of us here,” he pointed to Drew and me, then back to himself, “know she can’t be.”
“So go in there and tell Myers Ava’s not one of the Eight!” I challenged.
“Darcy believes we should allow Myers to realize on his own that Ava’s genes are not weakened to the point he needs them to be.”
“Can’t you just take a DNA sample with a cotton swab and a lab kit?” Drew questioned. “What’s with the operating room?”
“Not this kind of sample. Myers needs a specific gene part that has disintegrated just the right amount from a cell deep within her brain. He knows my training in neuro-genetics and has asked me to perform the operation.”
“Absolutely not! What’s the problem with just busting in and whisking her out of there right now?” There was no way I would allow Adam slice her head open again—last time that didn’t go so well.
Drew came to the conclusion before I did. “Myers isn’t much closer to the cure than we are, is he?”
“No. The agencies don’t want Darcy and me to risk revealing our true selves yet. We believe Myers has more to discover and he is the only one with access to the correct resources.
“It’s in his father’s research,” I spoke quietly.
Adam continued, ignoring my discovery. “We need him to create the cure for us before we take him down. If we can get him to decide he doesn’t need Ava’s DNA for the cure, then we can get her out of here without him suspecting anything.”
“But he wants revenge for Ava’s grandmother killing his parents!” I frantically whispered. “If he realizes he doesn’t need her for the cure, then he’ll undoubtedly kill her right there on the spot!”
“Excuse me? Ava grandmother killed Myers’s parents?” Adam looked genuinely surprised. “Blimey,” he said in a whisper.
“It’s a long story,” Drew replied. The watch on his wrist spoke to us again, “Get in here! What’s taking so long?”
“Twenty-four minutes,” Drew whispered to me.
“Let’s go!” Adam pushed the door open and silently snuck forward.
Three guards sat attentively around a half moon grey desk occupied with computer screens and keyboards. The men drank from coffee mugs and were dressed in khaki uniforms, completely oblivious to the intruders standing behind them.
“Agent Raddemann, you’re back quickly,” one of the guards stated.
Agent Raddemann?
Adam didn’t reply, but threw a crippling uppercut, knocking the guard off his chair. Drew and I rushed in and took out the other two men as they sprang to their feet, grabbing for their guns. Within seconds we had knocked out and disarmed all three. Adam snatched the key ring off one of their belts as we stepped over their bodies and quickly entered
a hallway beyond the desk.
As Adam led the way I was overcome with the oddest feeling, as if cold pressure from the park above us was pushing down on our heads. I closed my eyes tight and shook my head, trying to chase away the impending gloom surrounding my very being.
We entered a small dark room lined with a tilted wall of windows revealing an operating room beyond it. There were chairs for observers and even a screen for displaying close-ups from the surgery. The lights were off in this room, the darkness shielding us from view.
Inside the white operating room, Ava was strapped to a medical table and draped in a hospital gown, her eyes closed. A gag was positioned across her mouth. My heart leapt when I saw her so near me, looking so helpless. Had she been knocked unconscious? Darcy and two other men stood nearby.
“Why can’t we hear what they’re saying?” Drew asked.
“The intercom system is not on. Stay here while I go in. No one will be tempted to look in here if you don’t bring attention to yourself. I’ll clear my throat two times loudly if I want you to come in and back me up.” Then he left the viewing area and entered the operating room, locking the door behind him.
Curious, I tried the door we entered through. “He locked us in,” I said, when the door wouldn’t move.
“I’m not sure this is going the way we’d like it to,” Drew said somewhat nervously, trying again to get the watch off.
“I couldn’t have said it better.” I walked over to Drew and crouched down. “Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t bust open that door right now and steal Ava away.”
“Might I remind you we are in Myers’s funhouse, and if the rest of it is anything like that whacked-out elevator, we’re in trouble. We are basically at the mercy of two”—he used air quotes for emphasis—“double agents, one of whom may want to bomb my arm off, and the other is about to slice your lover’s brain wide open.”
He was right. We needed a real plan in order to end this thing in our favor.
The people through the window busied themselves around the room, preparing. They washed instruments, brought in sterile linens and solutions, and laid out surgical tools. Adam checked Ava’s vitals and Darcy attended to some computers in the corner. Ava’s eyes were still closed when Adam bent down near her face and whispered something into her ear. I was so intent on watching Ava that I hadn’t noticed Drew crouched down on the floor.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“I’ve got the overwhelming feeling that we’re walking right into a trap. Presently I don’t trust Adam or Darcy, and I can’t fathom a way out of here for us.”
Scattered around Drew on the floor were several small tech objects. He had the GPS device he used to identify hiding enemy agents in the student center, a few tablets of different sizes, and a long, skinny device somewhat like a keyboard but turned vertically. Positioned at the top of this machine was a small square monitor and a probe that extended off the end about four inches. Drew was waving this one over Darcy’s watch.
“Hot damn, it isn’t explosive! It’s just counting down.” He smiled and then looked up through the window at Darcy as if he was asking her a question. “What’s supposed to happen in nineteen minutes?”
“Dude! Where do you keep all those gadgets?”
“Never underestimate the real estate in your cargo pantaloons, friend!”
I laughed. It felt good to laugh.
Drew picked up the long, skinny device. “This little guy can scan a radius of fifty feet for environmental abnormalities, explosive devices, weird biometric readings—you know, anything we should be aware of before we bust in there and thrown down!”
Drew was always prepared. The machine beeped rapidly, and I tried to read the monitor, but the data was unfamiliar and I had no idea what was displayed.
When I looked up again Adam was dressed in a surgical gown, holding Ava’s hand with both of his and staring into her open eyes. Adam placed the anesthesia mask over Ava’s mouth. It was difficult to be sure, but I thought I saw a tear flow from her eye and land on the table.
“Everything looks normal. No sign of explosives or harmful toxins—wait….Wait, what is…?” Drew typed on the strange keyboard and looked quizzically at the screen. He rubbed his eyes and muttered under his breath.
“What?”
“Wait, let me scan again. This must be a mistake.” He typed in a command and then waited while the machine beeped for a few moments. He looked down while he waited. “Sixteen minutes on the watch.”
Suddenly we could hear Adam’s voice over the intercom. Through the window, I could see Myers, dressed in a medical gown, standing against the back wall of the room.
“Sir?” Adam said to Myers, “The Desflurane is not entering the mask. Something is wrong with your anesthetic machine.”
“Fix it!” Myers barked. Darcy rushed over and they played with the hoses and tubes for a few seconds.
What were they up to?
Drew spoke up at my side. “No, it’s reading the same…. Huh….”
“What!” I was getting impatient.
“I’m getting an abnormal reading from…well, from Ava.” He continued typing on the machine.
“Then give her Methohexital intravenously!” Myers snapped.
Darcy spoke up. “Sir, your supply has been depleted.”
Myers gave a loud grunt of disapproval and frustration.
“Drew, what do you mean, a strange reading?” I asked impatiently.
“It’s her body. There is some type of foreign substance in her body.” Adam wrinkled his nose and played around with the machine.
“Is it dangerous? Did Myers pump her veins with something? Drugs? Did he drug her?”
An angry fire burned within me again, but my attention was pulled back through the window when Myers’s voice became much louder.
“This is unacceptable!” Myers paced the operating room while Darcy and Adam quickly prepared instruments. “I suppose we are forced to proceed without placing Miss Gardner under anesthesia.”
Ava whined loudly and squirmed on the table, tears pouring from her eyes.
“Drew! What’s the deal? We’ve gotta get in there!” My body was shaking, revving up and ready to break loose.
Just like my heart.
Myers’s demeanor changed rapidly as he realized for the first time that Ava was awake.
“Ah, Miss Ava Gardner, I finally get to meet you.” He walked over to where she was lying, but stayed behind her head so she couldn’t see him. “Can’t say it’s a pleasure, though. Your very name makes me want to vomit right here on the floor.” His laugh was disgusting. “Though not because of lack of beauty. You’ve got that one covered, my dear.” He took one oversized plump hand and stroked her brown hair.
“Get your hands off her,” I whispered through gritted teeth.
Myers continued to stroke her hair. “Mr. Hill is a lucky man. Very lucky indeed.”
So Myers had no idea her memory had been wiped.
Then he dropped her hair and looked up quickly as if another thought popped into his brain. “Or perhaps there is someone else who’s been enjoying your beauty lately. Someone who I thought was one of mine, but recently has proven differently.”
Adam shifted his weight slightly but otherwise showed no change in demeanor.
Drew interrupted, “No drugs…well, I can’t be one hundred percent sure. It looks like there is some type of synthetic agent in her body, but it’s not matching with any of the molecular compositions of the chemicals programmed in this machine.” Drew looked confused. “I guess we’ll only know if we can take a sample of her blood and run it through the lab back at headquarters.” He looked up. “Nine minutes. What are we going to do in nine minutes?”
Still standing behind Ava, Myers continued his speech. “Miss Gardner, you possess something that I want. Something that I need to complete my very reason for existence. Forty-nine years ago my parents were murdered for a small vial of medicine—a prototype my fath
er had been experimenting with.” He addressed Ava as if she were the only person in the room. “I have some of the best chemists in the world trying to re-create the formula, yet they all tell me something is missing.” He stroked her hair again, and Ava tried to pull loose from the straps holding her wrists down. She began to sob when she realized it was no use. Then Ethan laughed under his breath. “Funny how the very person I want desperately to destroy is the very person I need desperately to keep alive. If only I had known before.” He shook the thought out of his mind.
Then he lowered his head down to her ear and spoke quietly. “A slice of your DNA from a single cell deep within your brain. This won’t hurt a bit.” She closed her eyes tightly, squeezing tears out of her eyes as his loud, repulsive laugh filled the room.
I clenched my teeth together, trying to hold back my urge to bust through the windows. “Drew,” I said, my leg shaking. “I can’t wait much longer.”
“Cabinets,” Drew muttered. Out of the corner of my eye I saw him get up and start walking the perimeter of the room, but I couldn’t peel my eyes from looking through the glass in front of me. Myers was careful to stay where Ava couldn’t get a good look at him. “I have to say, Miss Gardner, my track record hasn’t been too successful thus far. Those young ladies weren’t meant to die. You, on the other hand…” Myers showed his teeth, but he was not smiling. “I guess you’re lucky I’ve assigned Agent Raddemann to do the honors.”
He turned to face Adam, “Now’s the time. Let’s begin.”
But Adam stood, not moving.
“That’s it, I’m going in.” I stood up from my crouching position on the floor when Drew startled me.
“I know what the countdown means!” He rushed over to my side, speaking quickly, only inches from my face. “One night in Dublin, Darcy told me about a mission where she followed a lead on a Belgian freelance bomb-maker the IIA had been searching for. She was hoping to lure him into custody by posing as a client interested in his work.”
Drew left my side again and quickly returned to the cabinets stuck on the opposite wall. He frantically searched through them while he spoke. “She met up with him deep in the underground club scene of Brussels. Unfortunately, she wasn’t able to catch him that night because the guy had created a special watch that emitted high-frequency ultraviolet rays he’d engineered in a lab.”