Shadowgame

by Christine Feehan

  Ryland felt the instant surge of pure energy, and Cowlings simply disappeared. Kaden! Bring us out now. Now! Nicolas, wake up! He hesitated just long enough to make certain Nicolas obeyed him before following. Behind him the world turned to hell, fire raining from the skies and blowing across the sand, a boiling cauldron of orange and red flames.

  NICOLAS and Ryland looked at each other across the safety of the room. "Did you feel that?" Ryland asked the others.

  "What was it?" Kaden asked.

  "It wasn't Cowlings. He couldn't produce that much energy. His telepathic powers are nowhere near that strong," Ryland said.

  There was a short silence. Nicolas stood up, stretched, and went to Jeff Hollister's side. As he passed Kaden, he clapped a hand on Kaden's shoulder in a salute of thanks. "What do you think it was?" Nicolas asked Ryland.

  "I think someone used Cowlings as a conduit. We're dealing with energy. There are all kinds of energy." Ryland looked at Lily. "Who would know how to manipulate wattage or voltage massing in the air?"

  Lily sighed. "Someone at Donovans."

  Twelve

  ARE you certain you want to go back here, Lily?" John Brimslow asked. He didn't shut off the motor, hoping Lily would tell him to turn around and drive her home.

  "I have so much work, John," she said. "I can't fall too far behind. And don't worry about picking me up because I left my car here and I can drive home."

  John sighed. "I'm not one to tell you what to do, Lily, but I don't like this. It doesn't feel right to me. I know you've spoken several times with the investigators regarding your father's disappearance…"

  "He's dead, John." She said it quietly.

  "What did they tell you?"

  "I know he's dead. I 'felt' him die. He was murdered. Thrown off a boat into the ocean. He'd been bleeding heavily so he was nearly gone, but he was still alive when he went into the cold sea." She rubbed her hand over her face. "Someone from here"-she waved toward the sprawling complex of buildings-"had something to do with his death."

  John's face flushed dark with anger. "That does it, Lily, you can't go back into that place. We have to talk to the police."

  "And what are we going to tell them, John? That my father conducted experiments on human beings and opened up a psychic floodgate he couldn't close? That I connected with him as he was dying and he told me before they threw him overboard that someone at Donovans was responsible? Do you think they'll believe me-or lock me up? I'd be the hysterical daughter or, worse, the daughter who inherited a fortune when her father disappeared."

  "You already had the fortune," John pointed out, but he was shaking his head sadly, knowing she was right. "What do you mean conducting experiments on human beings? What are you talking about with psychic floodgates?"

  Lily let out her breath slowly to regain her normal calm. "I'm sorry, John, I shouldn't have said that. You know Dad did research for the military and he often became involved in projects with a high security clearance. I should never have even mentioned that. Please forget it and never say a single word to anyone about it." It was a measure of her fear and distress that she had made such a blunder. There was a certain innocence, a frailty about John that made her always want to protect him.

  "Does Arly know about all this?"

  Lily leaned against the seat and looked at the older man, studying his features. Since the disappearance of her father, he seemed older, thinner. "John, you aren't staying up nights, are you?" she asked suspiciously.

  His gaze wavered, fell away from hers. "I've been sleeping in the old chair at the bottom of the stairs leading to your wing. I have a gun," he confided.

  "John!" She was startled. She couldn't imagine John shooting anybody. He might fence with them, an elegant swordfight. She could see him slapping somebody with a white glove and challenging them to a duel, but she couldn't picture him pulling a trigger and taking a life. "What in the world are you thinking?" She was touched by his devotion. "Arly has that house so secure, spiders are afraid to spin a web. You can't be doing that anymore."

  "An intruder got in once, Lily, and I'm not going to lose you. Someone has to look out for you now, and I've been doing it nearly thirty years."

  "I love you. John Brimslow, and I'm eternally grateful you're in my life," she told him. "There's absolutely no need to guard me. Truly, Arly went through the house again with all new gadgets. He has a rather large ego and it really upset him that someone made it past all of his little toys." She grinned wickedly. "I had a lovely time pointing it out to him too."

  "Not nearly as good a time as Rosa had. She chewed him out in two languages and I believe the word 'incompetent' came up more than once." John managed an answering smile at the memory.

  "I almost feel sorry for him, but any man thinner than me deserves to be taken down a peg or two. Wish me luck, John, and stop worrying. I'll be perfectly fine." Hoping it was true, she kissed his cheek, got out of the car, and walked toward the entrance.

  Ryland had been furious with her when he'd learned she was coming to Donovans, arguing and threatening to break back into the facility to keep an eye on her. The man had an extraordinary temper, one that smoldered and burst to the surface like a volcano erupting. He could be intimidating if she was silly enough to let him.

  Fortunately it was imperative to get Jeff Hollister to Dr. Adams. They all knew it. Hollister's right side was weak, one leg in particular unresponsive. There was some numbness in his face and tremors occasionally in his right hand. She couldn't detect any significant memory problems or speech problems, but she wanted a specialist guiding his therapy. And she wanted to know if the electrodes should be removed or if it was safer to leave them. Jeff needed brain scans and help beyond what she could give him.

  "Dr. Whitney!"

  She spun around, a chill going down her spine as Colonel Higgens hurried to catch up with her. "Let me walk you to your office."

  Lily smiled at him. Polite. Ice princess. For some reason Ryland's teasing words comforted her. She didn't mind in the least being haughty or an ice princess around Higgens. "Thank you, Colonel. I'm surprised to see you here. I had an image of colonels always off doing military inspections and generally shaking everybody up." She went through the heightened security checks with some impatience. "Isn't this annoying? Just like Thornton to beef up security after the chickens have flown the coop."

  "Thornton and I have been talking about the situation, Dr. Whitney, and he'd like to see you first thing in his office."

  "I'm sorry?" She continued walking briskly through the halls toward her office. "What situation are you referring to?"

  "The men who escaped."

  "Did you find them?" She stopped walking to face him. "Were they able to function outside the protected environment of the laboratory?" Even with her barriers and her shields in place, she could feel the waves of dislike emanating from Higgens. It was more than dislike. Violence and avarice clung to him. He even smelled like rotten eggs to her. Her stomach rolled in protest.

  "No one's found them. Why weren't you at work yesterday?"

  Lily remained silent, her gaze steady on his face, one eyebrow arched perfectly. She waited until he squirmed visibly. "I'm not in the habit of explaining myself to anyone, Colonel Higgens, least of all a man who does not have any connection whatsoever to my work. The moment those men were allowed to escape, I no longer had anything to do with that project. I was called in as a consultant, which I did as a favor to my father and Phillip Thornton. I'm extraordinarily busy and have no time to devote to a project that is basically defunct." She gave him a polite, fake smile and swept into her office.

  Higgens followed her, a dark scowl on his face. "Thornton's on his way here now. We think you could be in danger."

  Lily slipped into her white jacket. "I'm in danger of not getting my work done, Colonel. If you don't have anything of great importance to impart, I'm going to have to ask you to leave. I appreciate your concern, I really do, but I have a very good security man."
>
  Phillip Thornton burst into her office. She felt waves of fear, and realized he was terrified of Higgens. "Lily! I was worried. I called your house yesterday but your housekeeper refused to get you on the phone."

  "I'm sorry, Phillip, Rosa doesn't want me to come to work anymore. She's been afraid for me ever since my father's disappearance. I often work at home, you know that. It didn't occur to me that you would worry about me. I'm trying to ease Rosa's mind and still get my work done."

  "Rosa isn't the only one worried about you, Lily. Colonel Higgens and I both feel the danger is very real that Captain Miller and his team may decide to kidnap you."

  Lily leaned her hip against the edge of her desk and folded her arms in annoyance. "Oh, for heaven's sake. I expect Rosa to become hysterical but not you, Phillip. Why would Miller want to kidnap me? I don't know anything about this project; I came in late and know less than both of you. I would think he'd want one of you."

  "I still think we should put a team on you," Phillip said.

  "A team?" Lily's eyebrow rose even higher. "My family would have been happy with a bodyguard. What do you mean 'a team'?"

  "Captain Miller is the leader of an elite group of soldiers, all with backgrounds in Special Forces," Colonel Higgens said. "A single bodyguard isn't going to be able to protect you from them. I have a team of soldiers, highly trained, ready and available to help out."

  "This doesn't make sense to me. Why would Miller come after me? He knows I don't know anything, I couldn't possibly help him in any way. And it isn't as if I'm in the military, I'm a civilian. You can't possibly justify the use of soldiers in guarding me. I think we're all overreacting to my father's disappearance. We're all a little on edge but I think asking soldiers to guard me is a bit much. Phillip, if you're really worried, to ease your mind, I'll ask Arly to find me someone. But I have to go through all the security here and having someone with me will be a major hassle."

  "I can find you someone with security clearance," Thornton offered.

  "Just let me get to work." Lily smiled to take the sting out of her words. "You know I appreciate your concern, I really do, but Captain Miller only saw me a couple of times. I doubt if I made any impression on him whatsoever."

  Thornton knew when he was defeated. "I still want you to do your best with this thing, Lily, look through anything your father had and try to figure out what the heck he did. It's important."

  "Everything is important. All right," Lily conceded with a sigh. "In my spare time, as if I have any, I'll poke around and see if I can come up with anything."

  Thornton ushered Higgens out of the office ahead of him, then turned back abruptly. "Oh, Lily, I totally forgot. The annual black tie fundraiser is Thursday night. Your father was going to give a speech."

  Lily was looking at him, her face very still, her heart suddenly pounding hard. In that moment she knew for certain Phillip Thornton had been involved in her father's death. It was in the guilt swamping him. It was in the way his gaze slid away from hers. In the sudden smell of sweat on his body. Her fingers tightened around the back of her chair, holding her in place. She was afraid to move, afraid to speak, certain she would say something to give her sudden knowledge away. She had been suspicious, but now she knew. She had known Phillip Thornton most of her life. Lily managed a brief nod.

  "You know how important this event is to our company and the individual researchers. More than sixty percent of our funding can come from this one event. We'll have some very important people and several generals there, including McEntire and Ranier, and I'll need you to help out. You know the drill, you've been to so many."

  "I completely forgot about the entire thing, Phillip."

  "It's understandable, Lily," he said, "and I wouldn't ask if it wasn't necessary. Everyone will expect you to be there."

  She nodded. She'd been flooded with condolences, from the president to lab technicians. She knew she would be expected at such a public event. "I'll go, Phillip, of course I'll go."

  "And you'll give a speech?" They both knew with her father's disappearance, her plea would bring in even more money than usual. Everyone was searching for a way to show support to Lily and she knew it would happen at the fundraiser.

  "Sure, Phillip." She waved him out of her office. General Ranier would be there and he always asked her to dance. The fundraiser would give her the perfect opportunity to read the general and find out if he, like his colleague General McEntire, was involved. Lily had completely forgotten about Donovans's most important event of the year. It would be the first time she ever attended such a huge function without her father. The thought saddened her. She sat for a moment at her desk, mourning him, missing him.

  Lily put her grief aside, not wanting to broadcast too loudly and risk making a connection with Ryland. If he thought she was upset or in danger, he would find a way to get to her. It surprised her that she was that certain of him, that she knew he would come.

  She spent several hours working in her laboratory, losing herself in formulas and patterns. When she finally realized how much time had gone by, Lily was annoyed with herself. She hastily tidied up her notes and hurried through the halls to the elevator until she was on ground level. The hospital was small but had equipment that would make any hospital or trauma center weep with envy. Lily signed in, going through the security checks to access the records she needed. She read through every entry she could find pertaining to Ryland and his men. Then she began researching the staff, checking entries to find who had been on duty when each man was brought in, looking for a pattern. Lily always saw the patterns and there certainly was one. She scanned the pertinent entries, noting names, and hurried back down to the lower laboratories, this time heading for her father's office.

  Lily could still smell her father's pipe just like in his office at home. No one had cleaned his desk, although his papers had obviously been gone through. She went directly to his desk and turned on his computer. As she drew the keyboard out she knocked the mouse onto the floor beneath the desk.

  Hissing her annoyance, Lily felt under the desk with her foot, her gaze glued to the screen in front of her. Her toes hit a cement block hard enough to send a jolt of pain up her leg. Lily peered under the desk. The mouse was all the way to the back, close to the wall. She crawled under the desk to retrieve the item, dragging it toward her by the cord. Lily had started to inch out from under the desk when the corner of the cement block caught her eye. It wasn't flush with the wall.

  Lily sat on the floor staring at it for a moment. She had to duck her head beneath the desktop as she crawled in deeper. It wasn't easy to pull out the cement block; it appeared to be wedged in tight, but she took her time, working it loose. When she finally managed to pull it free, she saw at once her father had hollowed out an area behind the block to create a small space. There was a miniature voice-activated recorder lying against the wall.

  Without warning, alarms shrieked throughout the buildings. Startled, she half sat, bumping her head on the edge of the desktop. She could hear the guards running in the hall outside the office. Lily listened to the alarm for a moment but there was no announcement of danger so she ignored the commotion to pry the recorder away from the wall.

  She let her breath out slowly as she curled her fingers around it. It was very dark beneath the desk but she felt a tiny disk, so small she nearly missed it. There was no covering, nothing to protect it from dust or grime. She could see a disk was in the machine already and Lily dropped the second small diskette into the pocket of her white coat as she crawled out from under the desk.

  Lily's hands were shaking as she sat in her father's desk and bent close to the small recorder. Nothing happened when she tried to play back the disk. Muttering curses under her breath, she rummaged through the drawers for batteries. There were no batteries of any size in the top drawers. Lily clutched the recorder in one hand and bent to search the lower drawers.

  She knew even before she turned, half rising to meet the impending thr
eat, already knowing it was too late. She'd been so caught up in wanting to hear her father's voice, hoping for evidence against his murderers, that she hadn't paid attention to her own warning system. She swung her head, caught a blurred glimpse of a man. Waves of violence, of evil washed over her just before everything exploded. A large fist smashed squarely into the side of her temple. Everything went black and tiny shooting stars burst behind her eyes. Lily caught at her attacker, raking her fingernails across his face, tearing at his shirt as she went down. She couldn't see him, but she heard his vicious curse and felt the second blow snap her head back and then she collapsed on the floor.

  RYLAND was uncomfortable with the plan. He'd been pacing most of the day, wearing a hole in the expensive carpets. He should never have allowed Lily to go back to the laboratories.

  Her safety was more important than any illusion of normalcy she was attempting to create. He had to persuade her to take a leave of absence. Her father had disappeared and that was enough of an excuse for her to take time off work.

  Darkness had fallen and it was their chance to move Jeff Hollister. Ryland didn't like taking him out of the house but Lily insisted her friend Dr. Adams had more advanced equipment set up in his home. She had a van and two cars left for them just inside the entrance to the woods and outside the estate itself. Arly assured Ryland the doctor would keep silent. Ryland wasn't about to take any chances with Hollister's life. They were going to proceed as if they were in enemy territory.

  "Nico, I need you to scout for us. Use the tunnel near the woods. We don't want to travel too far a distance with Jeff. Pinpoint every possible position of the enemy."

  "And if the enemy is found, sir?" The voice was quiet.

  "Do not engage. We don't want any evidence we were anywhere near Lily's house, Nico."