by Marie Harte
“I just want to go home,” Jerry pleaded and struggled again to be free. No doubt lying in wet clothes made him uncomfortable as well. But a wet body decreased resistance, and Carter needed to amplify the current and voltage to properly conduct his tests. Common misconception held that the higher the voltage, the more danger to a human. But that didn’t account for current.
Or in his niece’s odd case, her ability to harness electricity and swim in it as if pushing through water. She maintained her own unique resistance, able to both allow and withstand currents that would cause a normal person’s organs to explode.
He’d lost the only other person with her scope of ability due to the government’s interference and a blasted fire. In the years since that debacle, he’d failed time and time again in his search for a new subject to power his device. The Carter Device, he was thinking of calling it once it passed the tests.
He didn’t think this boy had it in him, but he was so frustrated. Scientific progress beckoned. He had to push the male to his limits and beyond. At the least, he’d have more data.
“Now, now,” Benjamin admonished. “We’ve had this conversation before. You’ll go home as soon as I finish this last batch of tests and not before. Today I’m merely going to see if your intake potential has increased at all. It should, if my data is correct, but we’ll see.”
Benjamin turned up the dial on his right and watched with fascination as the boy’s body shook. He waited a full five seconds before he increased the voltage, keeping the initial current steady. Jerry’s results looked pleasing. Benjamin continued for a full minute, alternately turning up the voltage and current in small increases.
“I think we’re seeing some real progress.” Excited, he ignored Jerry’s cries, determined to reach the next plateau. Continuing with a hope that was dashed all too soon, Benjamin was forced to call a halt at the yellow level.
Damn it. So close, yet not close enough.
He shook his head in disgust as the boy seized, his body smoked and he lost control of his bodily fluids.
Again they hit this roadblock.
“Mike!”
His one good assistant appeared momentarily.
“Clean him up and dispose of him,” he barked.
Mike called for one of the cleanup men, and they transferred the boy out of the room on a separate gurney.
Benjamin’s frustration boiling, he strode out of the room to his private study. At this rate, he’d never find the answers.
He took out his old journal. Creased at the binding, the hard leather cover had a lovely patina from years of constant handling. He’d been so close once. Ten years ago seemed like only yesterday.
Joshua Moran and Lizzie, his niece, had played key roles in his quest for the ultimate weapon. Their unique brain chemistry and function had enabled him to see wonders and experience their world for such a short time. Never before had he reached the blue level with any of his other subjects, nor seen the world in an alternate reality of hazy energy and linked existence. The Carter Device had been so close to success…
He studied his notes again, always searching for something he’d missed. He refused to consider that his results had only to do with Joshua and Lizzie. If he’d had longer to study them, he would have extracted a common answer evident in all humans. The knowledge, the science, was the truth of success. Joshua and his niece were important, yet ultimately expendable. And they would have been if he’d had the time to properly research and dissect them.
The initial chemicals he’d used on Lizzie had increased her tolerance to electricity. She’d been shocked by a bolt of electricity and developed her ability. But years of testing, success and failure, had given him the know-how to boost her system.
And then he’d been lucky enough to find Joshua, a boy born with such gifts. When he’d hooked them up together, their potential had quadrupled.
When Benjamin had tested his prototype device and shared their ability, that one glorious time, without any ill effect, he’d hit the mother lode. He’d not only been aware of their power, but in control of it. The capacity for destruction had been incredible. Success had been within reach. The government had promised him millions to deliver. He’d been on the cusp of becoming a national hero, where his contributions to science would have made him a household name.
And then Lizzie, that little bitch, had destroyed everything.
Her perfidy had ruined his life’s work. Thanks to Lennox, he’d learned that she’d been the one to make the call to his enemies. And his dreams had crumbled into ash.
Determined to rebuild, he’d done just that. It had taken years, a lot of trial and error, but Benjamin had done his best. Still, he’d never found another like Lizzie or Joshua.
He flipped through his journal and stared down at a picture of his niece, Elizabeth Remington Sinclair. She was the spitting image of her mother, his sister, whom he’d loved until the day she’d died. The day she’d given him the idea to pursue his research in its current direction.
They’d all been out walking together in the woods behind their family estate. He, his sister Catherine, her husband, Todd, and little Lizzie had walked into a thunderstorm. A bad one that’d seemed to come out of nowhere. Lightning had arced and struck around them. Fascinated, he’d stood and watched in awe. Then disaster had struck—literally.
A bolt of lightning speared them where they stood. It knocked him and the others off their feet. He suffered a concussion after hitting a nearby tree. Catherine and Todd died on impact. But Lizzie was drastically changed.
Only five years old and she’d lost everything…and became his personal miracle. Benjamin had taken her into his home and showered her with attention, if not the affection she’d always seemed to crave.
Her affinity for anything electrical fascinated him. She would sit in front of the television for hours, switching through channels using only her mind. She’d caused constant darkness throughout the house, blowing fuses and light bulbs until he’d helped her to develop some control. Until he’d given her the drugs that helped her manage her skills.
Already legendary in the scientific community for his innovative thoughts and intelligent mind, he’d been recruited by the government’s defense department to create a better weapon to help defend the nation. They wanted a supergun.
Benjamin had a broader vision. Why not change the very backbone of the army—the soldier? Lizzie had been his inspiration. Seeing what she could do gave him ideas. Why not make the basic ingredient of the nation’s fighting force a weapon? The new and improved soldiers would tear through the enemy before anyone knew what to do with them, no guns necessary.
With Lizzie on his team, the opportunity was possible. But with the addition of Joshua, it became probable. Until little Lizzie had defected and ruined it all.
Benjamin swore, concerned that they hadn’t been able to find a trace of her in over a year. He closed his journal and pushed a button on his phone. “Send Lennox to me.”
“Yes, sir.”
Moments later, a tall, thin man, with black hair, skin so pale it appeared white and a disconcerting disfigurement, entered the study and sat down across from him. Lennox had a puckered scar that ran from his left brow, over his eyelid, and down to the corner of his mouth. A holdover from the fire that had ruined the Institute, the pink scar stood out from his pasty face, looking like a cosmetic affectation one might wear for Halloween.
“I’ll need you to dispose of Jerry. He didn’t have what it took, unfortunately.”
Lennox’s black eyes narrowed. “What? Not another one?” He leaned forward with an earnest expression and respect, the only reason Carter tolerated his oddities. “Why not use me? I’ve told you time and time again I can take the pain.”
Carter sat back in his chair and studied his head of security. Lennox had been one of the few survivors of the Institute’s takedown, along with Carter and his niece. Then, Lennox had been a young scientist eager to prove his worth. But between the fire, the
explosions and the battle with the Feds, Lennox’s mind had grown damaged. In the years since, he’d gradually lost much of the intelligence that had once so impressed Benjamin. Now his talents ran more toward brutality and body disposal.
“We’ve talked about this before, Lennox,” Benjamin said carefully. He was always cautious around the man and treated him with kid gloves. Some of the things his head of security had done did not bear repeating. Still, better to have the monster on his side than against him. “I need you too much to risk your health. You’re much too valuable to waste on these piddling experiments. Once we have Lizzie back, then I’ll take your request into consideration, when I know I can safely use you.”
Lennox appeared to accept the excuse and stroked his cropped hair. “About Lizzie, I have some very interesting news for you.”
“Oh?”
“Our hacker got lucky, and I followed up with an eyes-on report. Lizzie is headed to Mexico on a private plane to meet with one of our investors, Lee Brooks.” He paused. “She’s traveling with a man who bears a striking similarity to someone we thought we’d lost years ago. Joshua Moran.”
Carter stared at Lennox in shock. “That’s not possible. She killed him. I watched her fry the boy the night it all went to hell.”
“She must have fooled you, sir. Fooled all of us.”
“I had no idea.” He was flabbergasted. “I mean, I thought him dead. There was no reason to look for him. His name never reappeared anywhere, and even the Feds reported him burned alive. Said they found his bones in the wreckage.”
“Yes, sir. A cover-up, I’m thinking.”
“But he’s with her? Both our quarry, together?” Like a sign, highlighting Benjamin’s destiny. A second chance.
“We’ll want to verify it’s actually him, but our computer comparisons don’t lie. There’s a 98.2 percent probability this man is Joshua Moran. Their facial alignments are identical.”
“It’s him. Yes.” Benjamin could feel it.
“I’m to assume we turn up the heat?”
“Yes, yes, of course,” Carter said, unable to contain his excitement. “But subtly. I want to know what they can do. Don’t capture them yet. But I definitely want them followed after Mexico.”
Finally, he’d have her again, and maybe even Joshua. He’d hounded his niece over the years, not putting much effort into catching her until he’d rebuilt his laboratory. It took a hell of a lot of funding to manage the equipment, not to mention the secrecy of his work. But the past few years he’d been ready to have her back and had had to make do with poor psychic substitutes.
“Speaking of Mexico,” he said slowly. “I think it’s time we took care of Mr. Brooks. I have the feeling I’ve wrung the last dollar out of him we’re going to get. He’s not parting with any more, despite the information Mike feeds him.” Mike, Brooks’s nephew, was the only solid assistant Benjamin could count on.
Lennox nodded, and a crafty gleam brightened his eyes. Carter tried to put the sight from his mind. The last time he’d seen Lennox perk up like that, his man had spent two days bathing himself in blood and tissue. Intestines could be so hard to clean up after. The smell alone…
“No problem, Doc.” Lennox smiled. “I’ll take care of it myself.”
Three days later in Cozumel, Lee Brooks gave a strained smile and dabbed a handkerchief at his forehead. Despite the fan swirling in the outdoor patio of his amazing hacienda, he continued to sweat like a pig. Of medium height with sandy-colored hair and a rotund frame, Brooks looked like an average businessman, miserable in the heat. Who wore a suit and tie when sitting in paradise? Remy wondered.
“I know Mr. Westlake said he could handle this, but I’ve seen Carter’s men watching me back in California. I flew out here thinking I’d be safer using my own security. You don’t know what Carter is capable of. That’s why I hired Westlake Enterprises for protection.” Brooks frowned. “No way in hell I can return to the States until Carter is handled. Do you understand me?”
“Perfectly,” Remy cut J.D. off before he could say something to alienate the man. Since their sexual rendezvous—as she liked to think of it—three days ago, they hadn’t spoken. Between time spent readying for the trip to Mexico, digging up more dirt on Carter and enduring Cole’s third degree about J.D.’s continual hostility toward him, she’d barely had time to breathe. And in three days, this was the longest time they’d spent together. First the flight, now their time with Brooks.
In their effort to lure Carter’s attention, she and J.D. had boarded a commercial flight to Mexico using fake names. Real names or her previous aliases would have been too obvious. But she knew how Carter worked. He had people monitoring public transportation. So they eschewed Jurek’s private plane in favor of uncomfortable seats, a cramped cabin and tiny packets of airplane peanuts.
Cramped didn’t describe Brooks’s tropical hideaway, though. His study alone had the same square footage as her entire apartment. Through the glass to her left, she could see smooth teak tables, plush couches and expensive artwork decorating the space.
Where they sat, the expansive outdoor area overlooked the crystal-blue ocean. The terra-cotta terrace was shaded by a lattice full of purple clematis. Flowers and lush ferns complemented the area, a virtual paradise. Yet their host had yet to relax.
A bevy of servants coming and going should have had Brooks seeming more like the fat-cat oilman she’d learned about than the helpless mouse staring down the maw of a mousetrap he appeared.
A small, elderly Mexican woman interrupted the stilted silence. She approached with a tray of refreshments and settled it down in front of them. After she poured them each a glass of lemonade and settled the plate of cookies in the center of the table, she returned to the cool expanse of the house.
Brooks sighed. “I know I seem paranoid, but I’ve been on pins and needles since the last time Carter and I spoke. He’s not stable. And my nephew is unreachable. I’m worried he…” He paused, coughed and said in a calmer voice, “Enjoy Rosa’s lemonade. She makes it from scratch.”
Only after Brooks took a sip did J.D. reach for his glass. She took some, needing the sugar to soothe her nerves. Despite letting themselves play the bait, they intended to see what they could get out of Brooks. And they hadn’t come alone. A small contingent of Westlake’s men scoped the house—five of Jurek’s enforcers, as J.D. referred to them. The men remained nearby but invisible since they didn’t want to scare Carter away.
“This is wonderful, thank you.” Remy took another sip. “But what can you tell us about Carter that you haven’t already?”
“Anything that will help us nail him while keeping you safe,” J.D. added. She glanced at him, not surprised when he refused to look at her. She bit back a sigh. You’d have thought I’d had my merry way with him and taken his virginity. If anything, I should be the wounded party here. The stubborn man had clammed up tighter than a drum. So much for talking and acting like real partners.
“All of my transcripts of communications with Carter are in my study,” Brooks answered. “Avail yourselves to all of it. I thought I was doing the right thing, you know. I’ve always been involved in science. From my youth spent tinkering in my father’s lab—he was a chemist—to the time I graduated college, I’d always assumed I’d follow in my father’s footsteps. Of course, that was before we inherited from my grandfather.” He sighed. “Someone had to keep the family finances together, so I went back to school and earned a business degree.” He paused to stare out at the ocean.
Remy could tell that his memories of school were happy ones. This was the first time since she’d met Brooks that he actually allowed himself to relax. He didn’t appear a bad sort, and she had a feeling they’d misread the situation. He didn’t seem to be working hand in hand with Carter, not in the way they’d suspected.
Brooks continued, “I was very excited when my nephew—my sister’s boy, Mike—expressed an interest in science. He’s nearly reached his doctorate in biochemistry. Gen
ius of a lad, a real chip off the old block.” His pride was unmistakable. “Mike introduced me to Dr. Carter, and I could tell right away that Carter had that same burning genius my father had. But as our association grew, so did my doubts.”
“You invested three million dollars into his research. Didn’t you look into him before you gave him the money?” J.D. asked with disbelief.
Lee Brooks hadn’t maintained his riches by being a trusting, naïve soul. Remy wasn’t buying his ignorance either.
“Of course I researched him.” He glared, offended. “Unfortunately, he came up roses because he used someone else’s credentials, as I only recently found out. Had the government released the confidential records I’d asked for more than a month ago, I would have seen for myself that Dr. Carter is a criminal. But I thought I had everything. His false background was impressive. The ringing endorsement from my nephew, who would never steer me wrong, really swayed me. And I did see one of Carter’s experiments that absolutely amazed me.”
Remy didn’t want to know any more, but she had to ask, “What exactly did you see?”
“I’m not a stupid man. First I researched him, then I demanded to see Carter in action before I invested a penny. He took me to a temporary laboratory, an abandoned school out in the country that had been converted into a lab.”
Which they’d already taken a look at and come up empty.
Brooks shook his head. “It was amazing. Carter had hooked up six men to a central device. Surrounding them was a plethora of electrical appliances. Not one of them had a battery or was plugged in, and Mike verified that they weren’t chipped with radio-control signals. I saw for myself that half of the devices that ran on batteries didn’t have any in them. I checked it all out beforehand.