by Vanessa Kier
SSU Laboratories
Georgia
Niko walked up to the covered observation window of Rafe’s room. The last time he’d stood at this window, Rafe had flown into a killing rage and nearly shattered the window trying to get to Niko. But the doctors had finally decided that it was safe to let Rafe meet Niko again.
That moment continued to live in Niko’s nightmares, along with the first time he’d seen his brother after his capture by Kaufmann. Under the scientist’s orders, Rafe had tracked Kai into the Amazon jungle. Rafe had been pounding Kai’s head against the jungle floor when Niko and Jenna showed up. Rafe had barely recognized his brother. Niko had fought Rafe, but in the end his brother had been too strong. The only way to stop him had been to tranquilize him.
Niko rubbed the scar tissue on his biceps. He still felt sick every time he remembered the sight of the darts sticking out of his brother’s body.
Staying away these past weeks had been hell, but he wasn’t a scientist and since Rafe tried to kill him on sight, there’d been no reason for him to stick around. Still, Niko’s protective instincts had insisted that it was his duty as big brother to help fix Rafe. Walking away from the lab had been the hardest thing Niko ever did, and that included his undercover work.
The second hardest thing had been explaining to his mother and younger sister that Rafe was ill, but that they couldn’t see him. His mother had gotten that stubborn look he so feared and threatened Niko with her wooden spoon if he didn’t take her to her youngest son. Niko had been forced to get Dr. Montague on the phone. Without giving away the truth of the situation, Dr. Montague had somehow managed to convince his mamá that Rafe would be fine, but that he couldn’t be allowed visitors yet.
Niko hadn’t wanted to leave the house he’d grown up in, wanting his mamá to have the security of one of her sons being present. But he’d also known that he’d go crazy staying home with nothing to do but worry.
Ryker had done his best to distract Niko by sending him out on physically grueling assignments. Jenna had been there to hold him in the middle of the night when he woke up from nightmares where Rafe killed everyone he loved. Dr. Montague had kept her promise to send him frequent updates on Rafe’s progress. But nothing had filled the aching hole in his chest.
Now Niko took a deep breath, let his arms hang loosely by his sides, and nodded to Kai who stood off to the left. Slowly the drapes to Rafe’s room opened.
Rafe stood facing his activity board, his finger touching what looked to be a photograph. Niko knew that Rafe’s therapists had prepared his brother for this moment by adding Niko to Rafe’s schedule. Niko had also given them the faded baseball cap that Rafe now wore backward.
As if sensing his brother’s attention, Rafe turned toward the window. For a moment there was no expression on his face and Niko’s hopes started to sizzle and die. Then Rafe’s face broke into a wide grin. He whooped and grabbed the baseball cap off his head as he ran toward the window. “Niko!” He waved the cap at his brother. “Bro-ther!”
Niko tried to swallow past the stone lodged in his throat. “Hey, little brother,” he said in Greek. “You feeling better?”
Rafe nodded. Then he glanced at the door. “In?”
Niko looked over to Kai for approval. His brother-in-law cleared his throat, blinked, then rubbed the tip of his nose. “Yeah, I think it’s safe to let you in.”
No sooner had Niko stepped into Rafe’s room, than his brother swept him into a giant bear hug. “Missed you,” Rafe declared.
Niko tightened his arms around his brother, so relieved at Rafe’s attitude that his eyes grew damp. “Yeah, I missed you, too, Rafe.”
Rafe pushed away and tugged Niko over to the easy chair. When Niko had settled himself, Rafe sat on the bed. “Ma-má? Ma-ri-a?”
“They’re good Rafe. They’ve been worried about you.”
Rafe’s eyes widened in panic. “Know?”
Ah, hell. “No. Sorry. We told them you’ve been sick. Nothing more.”
Rafe nodded. “Good. Thank you.” He waved the hand holding the baseball cap toward the door. “What. News?”
Niko began to fill Rafe in on everything that had happened since his capture. Despite his simplified speech, Rafe nodded and seemed to understand what Niko told him. In his halting language Rafe explained how Dr. Montague and the other good doctors had been helping him. Rafe called Dr. Montague Gab-by and glanced fondly at a small stuffed teddy bear whenever he said her name.
Niko had never been so grateful that his brother had fallen in love before his disastrous mission. He wished he’d been the one to pull Rafe out of his painful memories, but the relief of being able to hold a conversation with Rafe again outweighed his regret.
Niko understood that Rafe might never regain his full cognitive abilities, but sitting here, seeing the same teasing, love of life spark in his brother’s eyes, Niko didn’t care. As long as his brother wasn’t trying to kill him, all was good.
Chapter 19
SSU Laboratories
Georgia
“It’s ready,” Gabby announced, stepping into Ryker’s office ten days later and shutting the door behind her. She’d finally hit on a formula she thought might break through Rafe’s mental barriers.
Kai and Ryker exchanged glances of relief and guarded hope.
“There’s still a danger it could drive him insane,” Gabby warned. She gave each man a copy of her report, but she was too nervous to sit. Instead, she paced along the edge of the utilitarian office, waiting for them to finish the report.
Overall, the results were encouraging. Rafe was almost back to his original weight. He’d probably always carry ten or so extra pounds of muscle, but he’d shed the ungainly bulk from the enhanced steroid component. His reflexes and strength remained above average, but not so much as to make him a freak. Yet he still couldn’t speak with adult complexity, and he still threw fits of rage when any reference was made to his imprisonment.
God, she missed the old Rafe so much. Being with him every day, yet with him unable to interact as before, was torture. After having failed in every other attempt, all Gabby could think to do was give Rafe a pure dose of Nevsky’s original intelligence-enhancing drug. The one created for the side of his program meant to produce extraordinary spies.
Given alone, the drug had so improved the mental capabilities of Nevsky’s subjects that their brains hadn’t been able to handle the increased demand. Some of the men had literally burned out, dying when too many of their neural processing centers shut down due to overload. Others had gone insane.
Gabby’s theory was that the drug’s negative effects would be countered by what remained of Kaufmann’s drugs in Rafe’s system. Drugs that blocked mental pathways. Her tests confirmed that Nevsky’s drugs should act on the sectors of the brain involved in keeping Rafe a prisoner within his own mind, but still, she was terrified. What if she was wrong? A note in Nevsky’s files indicated that he’d once tried mixing his two drug formulas. The subject had experienced one day of both enhanced intelligence and superior strength. Then he’d fallen into a coma and died.
None of Gabby’s tests had indicated such a severe reaction would occur in Rafe, but what if she’d missed some key piece of data? What if she’d incorrectly calibrated the dosage?
“Gabby, stop worrying,” Kai chided. He’d learned to read her too well these past weeks. “The rest of your team has checked your data, reproduced your results, and agreed with your conclusion. This is Rafe’s best chance. Even if it fails, it won’t be your fault. Rafe gets the final go-ahead.”
She knew that. She did. But a part of her didn’t accept it. This was her formula. If Rafe didn’t come out of this okay, it would be because she’d failed to account for some unforeseen variable.
Gabby bit her lip. “I know. It’s just—”
“It’s hard to give the go ahead to use Nevsky’s formula on Rafe when we don’t know what the results are going to be,” Kai finished for her. “I know.” He pu
t a hand on her shoulder. “We’ll monitor him closely. He’s not going to die.”
She nodded. To do nothing was irresponsible. Just because she was afraid didn’t mean this was a bad decision. She owed it to Rafe to give him every chance.
She’d seen the pain in Rafe’s eyes. Seen how frustrated he got when he failed to complete a basic test or was unable to communicate to her in anything but simple phrases.
If this formula would give him a chance at recovery, who was she to let her fear stand in the way?
She let out a long breath, forcing her fears to follow. “So, when are we going to ask him?” Gabby asked.
Ryker stood up. “How about now?”
Kai squeezed her shoulder. “It’s the right thing to do, Gabby. You’ll see.”
She closed her eyes. Please let him be right. Please let this bring Rafe back to us. He doesn’t deserve to stay trapped the way he is.
CIA Headquarters
Langley, Virginia
Mark Tonelli slowly ran the handheld scanner over the pages of the report Jamieson had given him. Finding out details about Kaufmann and his program was turning out to be much easier than Mark had expected. All he’d done was let a bit of his disgust show when Jamieson had given him a rundown on the program. His boss had seized on that and insisted on throwing tasks at him that drew him into further responsibility for the program. Mark suspected he was being set up to be the fall guy if the program became public, but he couldn’t worry about that now.
He flipped a page of the report, then closed his eyes briefly and shook his head. He’d been naïve when he’d originally thought the drug program Jamieson supported was just about increasing body strength through enhanced steroids. He’d never guessed that men would go to such lengths to create superhuman soldiers.
But this report showed how much care Kaufmann’s team took in picking their subjects. It was a catalog of male military personnel complete with photos. The report listed their vital statistics—age, height, weight—and rated key traits such as intelligence, obedience, and loyalty.
Jamieson had explained that as the program matured it became increasingly difficult to find men who responded well to the conditioning. So Kaufmann had put together a wish list of traits.
Mark had been tasked with sorting through this catalog, which was updated monthly, for men with Kaufmann’s desired traits. Jamieson’s contact at the Department of Defense would then help arrange for an “accident” where the man would be declared dead.
In reality, he’d be shipped to Kaufmann’s lab.
While he read through the list, Mark kept an eye out for any mention of Faith’s brother, Toby Andrews. Just thinking of the spunky former reporter brought a half-smile to Mark’s lips. The woman had pulled a gun on him earlier in the week, in a desperate attempt to learn what had happened to her missing brother. Toby had been in military intelligence and the information he left his sister had led her to Jamieson. She’d seen Mark leaving a restaurant where she’d followed his boss and decided Mark was the easier target.
That move had saved her life. Jamieson would have had her killed on the spot. Mark, on the other hand, had found himself entranced by the woman. He’d agreed to help locate her brother in return for access to all the information her brother had gathered.
Unfortunately, he suspected Faith’s brother had already been sent to Kaufmann. While Jamieson trusted Mark enough to give him access to the catalog in order to select potential new subjects, he’d yet to find any evidence of who was already in the program. He wouldn’t tell Faith his suspicions until he had proof, because the odds of her brother surviving more than a few months with Kaufmann were slim.
In the meantime, Mark kept a duplicate list of potential candidates, which he’d send to Ryker tonight. He trusted the SSU director would make sure none of the targets actually ended up in Kaufmann’s lab.
SSU Laboratories
Georgia
Rafe knew something was the matter the moment Gabby walked into his room, followed by Kai and Ryker. They never visited him all together.
Over the last few weeks the voices in his head telling him to kill had all but disappeared, taking with them the excruciating headaches. He’d been allowed to visit with Niko, and the love and acceptance he’d received from his brother had eased some of his soul deep pain. After Niko, Rafe had slowly been reintroduced to in-person chats with Kai and Ryker. Niko had recently been called away on a mission, but Kai stopped by to chat every once in a while and Ryker had been by twice to talk about SSU business.
Ryker’s visits had frustrated them both. His boss had clearly hoped that talking about the day-to-day operations of the SSU would trigger Rafe to remember more of his past. Ryker had explained that he’d been training Rafe to take over as director when he retired in five years or so. Rafe didn’t remember and couldn’t imagine ever wanting to sit behind a desk. All he wanted was to move. To release his constant restlessness. But he’d hated the hint of sadness and regret that had crept into Ryker’s eyes.
He didn’t like disappointing the man any more than he liked disappointing Gabby.
Rafe fought the urge to lower his head in shame. He still couldn’t speak like an adult, but the memories of what had been done to him, and what he’d done, haunted him. Made him feel less than a man.
How could he look Ryker in the eye, knowing that Kaufmann and his scientists had ordered Rafe to kill, and he’d done so, even when it meant fighting Depaoli to the death. He’d watched the light go out in his friend’s eyes after Rafe had stabbed Depaoli in the chest. Rafe could still feel the screams of denial pressing against his windpipe, demanding to get out. But the compulsion to obey the Voice had been too strong. The Voice had ordered him to kill, so he’d killed, while his tears splashed in a macabre polka dot pattern onto the dirt coating Depaoli’s face.
For the rest of his life, Rafe would have nightmares about Depaoli’s death. And yet every time Rafe tried to tell Ryker what he’d done, the splitting pain in his head returned. He couldn’t even write it down. Kaufmann had fucked with his brain that much. Trapping him alone in here with his thoughts.
Fighting off insanity and feeling worthless.
Worse, he knew the information locked in his head was vital to finding Kaufmann and stopping whatever plans the scientist had for the upcoming anniversary attack. But dammit, he still couldn’t remember anything about the lab’s location.
Whenever he tried, blinding light speared through his mind, followed by shattering pain. The doctors had tried sedation, hypnosis, biorhythmic feedback. None of it worked.
Only Gabby kept him from going nuts. He anticipated her nightly visits with childlike excitement.
“Rafe,” Ryker said. “We’d like to discuss something with you.”
Rafe glanced from Ryker to Kai to Gabby. Kai had on his serious scientist face. Gabby held the clipboard with his chart stiffly in front of her. Her lowered eyes stared at the data on the chart as if it held the secrets to the universe. Yet even with the expression in her eyes hidden, the tight line of Gabby’s mouth gave away her tension. She would suck at poker, because no matter how hard she tried, Rafe could always tell what mood she was in.
“What wrong?” Rafe demanded, directing his question at Kai. But, dammit, his words answered the question, didn’t they? He still wasn’t able to form grammatically correct sentences. His mind knew it, but there was still a block between his thoughts and his mouth.
Kai cut his eyes to Gabby. She sighed and finally raised her eyes.
The sorrow and fear there made him wish he was sitting down. “Rafe, your test results have flatlined. There’s been no improvement on the cognition. Your mental skills. In fact, there’s been a slight decline. If we don’t do something quickly, we’re afraid you’re going to get worse.”
She pulled her bottom lip between her teeth and worried it.
Rafe’s hope deflated. He’d tried so hard on the test yesterday. He’d thought he’d done better, even though it still felt
as if he was constantly watching himself through a thick layer of Jell-O. No matter how hard he focused on the right thing to do, his hands and mouth refused to obey.
“We want to try Nevsky’s intelligence formula on you, Rafe,” Kai said. “Gabby and her team have worked up a calibration that they believe will work well with your body. But the decision is up to you.”
“Safe?” Rafe asked.
“We don’t know,” Gabby admitted. “We think so, but we can’t be sure. We haven’t anyone to test it on, except you. The test tube results indicate it’s safe.”
But Gabby was afraid, he could see it in her eyes. Kai held himself still, waiting for an answer. A part of Rafe’s brain that remembered Kai from before interpreted this as tension, although Kai’s expression was neutral. Ryker, as usual, had a face impossible to read.
“Die?” Rafe asked.
Gabby bit down hard on her lip and Rafe suddenly found himself unable to tear his gaze away as warmth filled him. He had the strangest urge to soothe her chewed lip with his tongue.
He jerked his eyes away, knowing this was the wrong time to be thinking such things.
“We don’t know how dangerous this drug could be,” Gabby said quietly. “It might kill you. It might make you insane. It might help you break through the barrier holding back your intelligence.”
Rafe looked around his room. He was sick of this place. They now allowed him more time in other parts of the compound, but he was always escorted, and he always returned to this one room. He couldn’t remember everything about his previous life, but he knew that living like this was a slow form of death.
And if he started to slide back to how he’d been in Kaufmann’s hands?
No. He wouldn’t regress. He trusted Gabby and Kai to have this formula right.