by Ana Stone
“No, we got it. What about his security?”
“All they know is we came to see him. But he might have surveillance so check and see to make sure there’s nothing that can come back and bite us in the ass.”
“No worries. We took over control of that and have the footage.”
“Then we’re good to go.”
The man nodded and moved away. Roxy returned to where the Chief sat waiting. “Chief? We need to go now.”
“Don’t we need to make a statement?”
“Already taken care of. Come on.”
He followed her outside and she stopped at his car. “I need you to follow me, please.”
He nodded without response, got in his car and backed out of the driveway. She did the same, noting that he followed when she started down the street. She wondered why Maybelle had told her to bring the Chief with her. There was no reason for it. As far as he was concerned, she was working for West and what had happened was easily explained. There would be no repercussions.
So why bring the Chief to Maybelle?
Roxy gritted her teeth. She was tired of questions. It was as if every time she got close to the truth another twist developed. It was like a bad movie and she was the character who was constantly getting screwed with.
That thought sent a shock sizzling through her and on the heels of it came an opening in the dark cloud enveloping her mind. A memory surfaced. A memory that held a key. There was another player in the game, one who had the power to not only screw with the recall process, but potentially change it.
She pulled out her phone and called Turner at the lab on the private cell number West had given her.
“Agent Quinn?” he answered.
“Yes. I need you to do something.”
“What?”
“Activate Reset-Delta2-UNBL0K-QRRN3G_Overide_Zeta-Alpha 346. Immediately.”
There was silence on the other end of the line. “Turner? Are you there?”
“I would need an authorization code to perform that function.”
“YX0R-RN3G-ZRR-D01.” To her relief the authorization code popped into her mind.
“This will take a moment. Hold on.”
She waited. A minute passed and then two before she heard his voice again. “Activation complete.”
“Are you sure?” She didn’t feel anything. No new memories had risen.
“Positive. Even if you were out of range of the satellite, your cell should have picked up the signal and transmitted through a hidden app.”
“Run a full diagnostic,” she replied. “And text me with the results.”
There was another long pause before he responded. “Does this mean you remember –“
“Don’t say it.” She interrupted. “That could be a keyword and we don’t want to trip a hidden surveillance routine. But the answer is yes. I do.”
“And West?”
“I’ll take care of that. Just run the diagnostic.”
“On it.”
“Thanks.”
She ended the call. She now held a bigger piece of the puzzle. The question was, how to use it. Her thoughts were occupied with that the rest of the drive. The lights on the ground floor of the house were on when she pulled up behind Maybelle’s house. She got out of the car and waited for the Chief. The moment he was out of the car he was questioning her. “Why are we here?”
“This is where I was told to come,” she said and started for the door.
“To May—Miss Justice’s? That doesn’t make any sense.” He argued as she tapped on the door.
She didn’t have to answer. Maybelle opened the door. “Roxy, Art, please, come in.”
Roxy walked in and the Chief followed. He started in on Maybelle the moment she closed the door. “What’s going on here? I don’t understand? Is West here? Why would he have us come --”
“Art, please,” Maybelle silenced him with a hand on his arm. “There’s a lot you don’t know. Please, come in and everything will be explained.”
He fell silent and followed her into the parlor. A man stood in front of the fireplace, his back to the door. At Maybelle’s request, Art took a seat on one of the sofas. Roxy remained just inside the door as Maybelle left with room with a comment about preparing tea.
The man at the fireplace turned and Roxy nearly screamed at the pain that slashed through her mind. She staggered, reaching for the doorframe for support. Almost as suddenly as it came, the pain departed, leaving behind clarity. Complete clarity.
At last the recall was complete. She remembered. And with remembrance came fury. She pulled her gun, leveling it at him.
“Welcome home, babe.” He gave her a cocky smile.
“You rotten bastard,” she hissed. Just as her finger started to tighten on the trigger she felt something cold and hard press against the base of her skull.
It wasn’t her first rodeo. Roxy knew the feel of a gun’s mussel. Maybelle’s voice came from behind her. “I’ll take your gun.”
“Now hold on!” Chief Phillips jumped up. “What’s going on here?”
“All will be explained, my dear,” Maybelle said. “Just as I promised. Please, you must trust me.”
Roxy prayed that the Chief would not, but to her surprise, he shook his head and reclaimed his seat. “Now, your weapon,” Maybelle reminded her.
Roxy was tempted to just play the odds. Pull the trigger and take her chances. She hated him that much. But if she died, what would happen to West and Zeke?
Reluctantly, she lowered her weapon and relinquished it to Maybelle.
“That’s my girl,” the man said with a chuckle.
“Go to hell,” Roxy said, then took a step forward as Maybelle jabbed her in the back with the gun.
She walked over to face the man at the fireplace. He smiled down on her. “It’s been a while, babe.”
He made a move as if to touch her and she knocked his hand away. “Touch me and I swear I’ll kill you.”
He laughed and walked over to take a seat across from the Chief. Maybelle nudged Roxy with the gun over to the sofa where the Chief sat. Roxy sat down and Maybelle perched on one of the occasional chairs beside the sofa.
“What the hell’s going on, Maybelle?” The Chief asked.
“It’s rather complicated,” Maybelle replied. “You see, I work for the government, my dear. West Franklin? He works for me. As does Roxy.”
“You…?” His eyes darted from her to Roxy and then to the man. “And who is he?”
“Her boss,” Roxy said in a hateful tone. “David Remington.”
Art looked at Maybelle. “You want to explain all this, honey?”
“Yes, I do. In time. But right now what’s important for you to know is that we are trying very hard to clean up a -- situation. Can you trust me, my dear?”
Art nodded. “I always have.”
“Thank you,” Maybelle smiled at him then turned her attention to Roxy. “Call Zeke and West. Have them meet you at NeuralNet. It’s important.”
“NeuralNet?” Roxy asked then looked at David. “What are you up to?”
“Just do your job, Roxy.” He replied. “Make the call. Put it on speaker”
Roxy didn’t see that she had another play at the moment so she pulled out her phone and dialed West’s number.
“How’d it go?” he asked.
“Not exactly as expected.” She cut her eyes at David.
“What does that mean?”
Her mind was in a whirl. One of the things that had been restored to her mind was a code, a code she and West had put into place just in case either of them, or Zeke were compromised by the people they worked for. But how to give West the code was a problem.
“I’ll explain when I see you.”
“Okay, when and where?”
“Well that was easy, cowboy.”
“You know me,” he quipped. “Easy to lasso and eager to please.”
Thank you West. He’d just opened the door for her. “Just the way I like it, but listen you need to
bring the Renegade with you.”
“Zeke?”
“Yeah. It’s time for a threesome.”
There was a moment’s pause before he spoke again. “Why’s that?”
“I’ll explain when I see you. Just meet me at NeuralNet.”
“Neural ̶ what’s going on, Roxy?”
“Just meet me there.”
“Okay.”
“See you there.” She ended the call and looked at David. “Now what?”
“Now we go see the boys,” he replied and stood. “You’re coming with me.”
Roxy stood, paused and looked at the Chief. “What about him?”
“He’ll ride with me and Raymond,” Maybelle said and then looked at David. “We’ll be along shortly.”
He nodded and gestured for Roxy to precede him. She did and together they walked outside. David tossed her a set of keys and pointed to a dark sedan. “You drive.”
Rather than argue, she went to the car, opened the door and slid into the driver’s seat. Once David was in the car, she started it and pulled away from the house.
“What do you want?” She asked once they were on the road, headed out of town.
“A lot of things. You, for one.”
“Not going to happen.”
“Oh, I think I can change your mind.”
“Not a chance.”
He laughed. “That’s part of what I love about you, Rox. You’re such a balls to the wall woman.”
“You don’t even know what love is,” she replied. “You control and consume. That’s not love.”
“Oh right, not like what you have with the boys.” He taunted her sarcastically. “You’re not that big a fool, Rox. What you have with them isn’t love. It’s co-dependence. It’s that way because we made it so.
“That’s bullshit.”
“Is it? I don’t think so. You all think that mission in Afghanistan created some kind of unbreakable bond between you but the truth of it is, we locked the three of you together in that fucked up triangle because it was the easiest way to control you.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Don’t I?” David angled a bit, leaning his back against the door.
Roxy wasn’t about to admit that he was at least partially right. He knew her. Better than she wanted him to. And she had no doubt that he’d played a huge part in the alteration of their memories.
David had always liked screwing with her head. He was one of the first people she met when she was recruited from Military Intelligence. She’d been surprised to find out that she wasn’t being recruited for the CIA proper, but for an organization called R3NG, a black ops group not under the jurisdiction of the executive branch of the government. It operated with virtual autonomy and not even her handler, Maybelle or the division chief, David, knew who the head of it was. All they knew was their orders came from the Controller.
She, like all of the members of R3NG were recruited because they possessed special skills. Roxy had had been transferred into Intelligence in the military because her procedural memory allowed her to pick up skills at a glance, which made her an extremely valuable asset. Added to that was her ability to record people’s memories via telepathy, and then replay them to other people as if it was their own memory. She had to be in direct contact with a person to record the memories, but could replay via remote. Her own memories could be delivered telepathically as well.
R3GN was eager to put her skills to work for them. During the year of training she underwent with R3GN it was discovered that she had a third ability, a very unusual one. She could, at will, release airborne pheromones that were capable of driving people into extreme emotions such as anger or happiness, as well as induce extreme sexuality. The response evoked was dependent upon what kind of feeling or emotion she was focused upon.
David was her division chief, and was instrumental in her training. It was he who volunteered to act as the guinea pig for her to demonstrate and later, hone her skills. Since the moment she was recruited, he’d been her superior on the job, and had tried to be much more. He had pretty impressive skills of his own, and had even stooped to using them on her.
When she first David she was skeptical as to the veracity of his proclaimed abilities. He professed to being a type of immortal. She didn’t believe it, but he was able to prove through an uncanny knowledge of history that he’d been alive since 1804. His longevity was due to one of his abilities ̶ accelerated cellular regeneration. He had complete cellular control and could heal from any wound, injury or disease at will. She’d seen it with her own eyes, and read the medical reports. Aside from lopping off his head or dropping a nuke on him, no one knew how to kill him.
He was also able to make himself undetectable to the human eye. R3NG scientists theorized that he was able to broadcast some kind of signal that essentially created a blind spot to the eyes, making it seem as if he were invisible. It did not work with electronic surveillance devices, but was nearly one hundred percent accurate on humans.
His most frightening ability, at least to Roxy, was being able to control the environment and direction of someone’s dreams. He could control up to four people at a time but only if he was in very close proximity.
She’d experienced firsthand what it was like to have him tap into and control a dream. He’d put so many erotic, sexual dreams in her mind that for a month she was almost worthless, unable to concentrate for the sexual tension vibrating through her.
That thought shoved her back from memories. She didn’t want to remember the short-lived affair they’d had, or the fact that it was something that was never real for her. It was just something he’d manipulated her into by controlling her dreams.
She’d be willing to bet he’d been doing that ever since she underwent the procedure. It was the only thing that made sense. He was the one responsible for the dreams she’d been having, or at least for manipulating them. While her mind gave her the dreams as a way of trying to help her consciously remember West and Zeke and the truth of who they, and she, were, David had been insinuating things into her dreams. Her feelings of guilt over cheating on a husband she’d never had. It was a way of messing with her emotions to keep her off balance.
She had no doubt that he had done the same to West and Zeke. He’d played on their feelings for her, and the jealousy between them and magnified it to keep them at one another’s throats. As long as they were in contention they didn’t stand a chance of discovering the truth.
“You don’t know shit,” she finally responded.
“I know you.” His voice softened and she refused to look at him as he continued. “Come back to me Rox. Come back and I swear there won’t be any repercussions against them, no sanctions and I promise they won’t be put through the procedure again.”
“Not a chance in hell.” She said and meant it. She would do a lot of things for the people she loved, but being under David’s thumb was not one of them.
“I’d encourage you to change your mind.”
“Not going to happen.”
“We’ll see.”
Roxy wasn’t going to argue with him anymore. “Just what are you planning to do, David? Wipe West’s and Zeke’s mind? Maybe you can afford to sacrifice Zeke, but it would be stupid. He’s the best you have in the field. It would be a waste.
“And West? Come on. You need him. You know that. Doesn’t matter how many brains you recruit, no one knows NeuralNet the way he does. And what about Turner? If you act outside the dictates of the Controller, he’ll know and chances are, he’ll report you.”
“No, he won’t.”
“How can you be sure?”
“Because his usefulness has come to an end.”
“So, you’re going to eliminate him.”
“Let’s call it collateral damage.”
Roxy fell silent. David was out of control. She had to find a measure of calm so she could think and figure out a way to stop him. She had to or they were all screwed.
West cut a look at Zeke, who sat behind the wheel of the truck, his hands gripping the wheel so tight his knuckles were white. West didn’t comment on Zeke’s tension. As yet, Zeke had not remembered NeuralNet or what happened there. He knew his memories had been altered, but didn’t remember the actual process.
Whether it was ill fortune or good, thanks to the phone conversation with Roxy, West remembered. He couldn’t be sure he remembered everything, but what he did remember was enough to be an advantage. He couldn’t help but wonder how Roxy had gained total recall.
He’d gone over it a dozen times and it still didn’t add up. Something had to have happened to trigger her recall, and as far as he knew, only the two of them had the codes to activate that level of recall.
A sudden thought occurred to him and he cut a look again at Zeke. “You remember Remington?”
Zeke’s head jerked around in West’s direction. “Hard to forget that bastard. Why?”
West shrugged. “I just can’t help thinking that somehow he’s involved.”
“I thought he was dead?”
“And just how do you think any of us could accomplish that feat?”
Zeke’s eyes widened and West could tell from his expression that Zeke had just reclaimed a fragment of memory. “Shit on a stick. You’re right. So, if it wasn’t him I was carrying when I was shot then…”
He shook his head. “I hate this shit. Not remembering.”
“Me too, brother.”
“So what are we going to do about it?”
West considered it for a moment. “We’re going to do like Roxy asked. Meet her. Once we get a lay of the land, we’ll access and go from there.”
“If she’s with Maybelle, she’s safe.” Zeke said, then gave West another quick look. “Right?”
“I don’t know,” West admitted. “Right now, I don’t know who we can trust.”
“Besides each other?”
“Yeah.” West paused for a moment. There was something he’d been wanting to say for a long time and now might be the best opportunity he would get. “Zeke, listen. I need to say something to you and I need you to hear me out.”
“What?”
“It’s about Roxy.”
He could tell from the way Zeke’s hands tightened on the steering wheel that he’d struck a nerve, but to Zeke’s credit he nodded.