My voice scraped out between my clenched teeth. “It’s not like I have a choice. I’m telling you…”
“I know,” he interrupted. He held my gaze. “I opened myself to some undesirable scrutiny when I promoted you to an agent’s role in the absence of any formal qualifications or testing. I would consider it a personal favour if you would pass this examination.”
My jaw creaked under the strain and I drew a slow, deep breath, easing the tense muscles. Yes, he had put his ass on the line for me, even though he’d had some excellent reasons not to.
Holding my voice level, I asked, “What do I have to do?”
“It’s just the standard physical and firearms qualification. Bare minimum.”
I unclenched my teeth. Again. “But what does that include? And anyway, whether I pass or fail the qualification isn’t the point. The point is if you put me undercover in Fuzzy Bunny, I’ll blow it all to hell and take everybody else down with me.”
Stemp rose. “Ms. Kelly, we believe Fuzzy Bunny is attempting to recruit you, specifically. You are the only person who can do this, and despite your convincing adherence to your cover, I know you’re capable. Unless there’s something else you want to discuss privately, we need to get back to the briefing.”
He strode out, and I had no choice but to trail after him on trembling legs.
When we re-entered my office, Spider was staring at the toe of his running shoe while he scuffed it back and forth, alternately ruffling and smoothing the nap of the carpet. He glanced up, his gaze sliding away to perch in the corner of the room as a flush rose on his cheeks. Kane and Germain broke off their conversation to turn standard-issue neutral cop faces toward us.
Before the tension could increase any more, I spoke. “I owe Director Stemp an apology, and I want to apologize to all of you, too. I was acting childishly. I’m sorry for what I said, and I’m sorry for making everyone uncomfortable. It won’t happen again.”
“Thank you, Ms. Kelly, but as I said in my office, a public apology is unnecessary,” Stemp replied. “We all know you’ve been recovering from some difficult experiences.”
As he swept the others with his gaze, I was relieved to see them relax, the air pressure lightening in the room.
“I’ve asked Drs. Kraus and Travers to join us…” Stemp began. A tap on the door interrupted him, and he glanced over to nod at the stunning blue-eyed blonde who leaned into the room, giving us a smile that would make birds sing, flowers bloom, and grown men fall helpless at her feet.
“…at sixteen hundred,” Stemp finished, unperturbed.
I turned toward Germain, hiding my gleeful anticipation of his reaction. “Carl, this is Dr. Honey Travers, Jack for short. Jack, Carl Germain.”
“Hi, Jack. Nice to meet you.” Germain rose with his usual pleasant smile and offered his hand as if meeting brilliant and voluptuous scientists was an everyday occurrence.
“Hi… Carl.” A pretty flush stained Jack’s flawless complexion, her full lips trembling around his name for an instant before her usual poise returned. “It’s nice to meet you, too,” she added as she shook hands. “And this is Dr. Sam Kraus.” She ushered forward the short, roly-poly man who had hung back in the doorway.
Germain’s expression smoothed into watchful appraisal as he nodded. “Dr. Kraus.”
“Please call me Sam.” Sam shot a pleading glance in my direction. “Hi, Aydan.”
“Hi.” I couldn’t quite summon up a smile to hide the chill of betrayal that still lurked in my heart. I settled for a non-committal twitch of my lips, relieved when Stemp spoke again.
“The doctors have been working on another version of the network key that allows Ms. Kelly access to the network. Today they have a prototype to test. Dr. Travers?”
Jack stepped forward, looking unaccountably nervous. Opening her small briefcase on the coffee table in front of me, she lifted out the familiar band of electrodes and settled it around my forehead.
She slipped a tiny box out of her pocket and handed it to me. “Just go into the network and stay there for a few seconds. If that goes well, we’ll try a sim, and then maybe some decryptions. But nothing outside our firewall for this first trial.”
“Okay.” I settled back on the sofa, closing my eyes.
“Wait!” Stemp’s bark jerked me upright, my eyes popping open. I eyed him with confusion as he continued, “Kane and Germain, go into the network first. Wait for Ms. Kelly to enter. If anything unusual happens, get her out the portal by any means necessary. Clear?”
Both men nodded, and Kane shot a narrow-eyed glance in Sam’s direction. “Do you expect anything unusual?”
“No, no, of course not.” Sam’s pudgy fingers combed his snowy beard. “Of course not. No, this is just in the interests of… safety…” He trailed off and backed a couple of steps away from Kane’s steel-grey stare.
Kane transferred his attention to Jack. “Jack? What’s your take on this?”
“I don’t see any reason why this should be any different than Aydan’s usual access,” she soothed.
Kane held eye contact for another second before transferring his attention to me, his voice softening. “Whenever you’re ready, Aydan. We’ll be there for you.”
Despite my attempt to suppress my reaction, the echo of affection in Kane’s voice warmed me. I sighed and leaned back on the couch. Forget it. Keep it professional. Safer for everybody.
Kane and Germain exchanged a nod and they both settled into immobility in their chairs, their eyes taking on the thousand-yard stare that indicated they’d entered the brainwave-driven network.
When I mentally stepped into the white void of virtual reality, I smiled at the two muscular avatars encased in combat body armour, submachine guns nestled in the crooks of their bulging arms.
“Are you all right?” Kane demanded, his gaze raking my face.
“Fine. Thanks.” I peered up into the blank whiteness. “Hey, Jack, am I supposed to feel any different?”
“No.” Her reassuring voice filtered through the external interface. “You shouldn’t feel any different at all.”
“Okay. How long do you want me to stand here?”
“Just until I get a baseline reading…” Jack sounded abstracted. “Just a minute…”
Kane and Germain bristled with readiness, scanning the void in all directions while I shuffled my feet, feeling foolish. A few long moments later, Jack spoke again.
“All right, try a sim now.”
“Anything in particular?”
“Yes, do your mountain simulation. I have baseline data for that one.”
“Okay.” I materialized the virtual corridor and was about to head for a room when Kane stepped in front of me.
He jerked his chin at Germain. “I’ll lead. Germain will cover our six.”
They took their places and we moved along the corridor, Kane scouting ahead while Germain brought up the rear, both with their weapons unslung and ready.
Dammit, why all the caution? If Jack had just tossed me the key and said ‘Here, try it’, I wouldn’t have worried at all. I held my face expressionless while nerves twitched in my stomach.
Inside the sim room, I eased out a long breath and concentrated on the sun and spruce-scented air of my favourite mountain top. It sprang into being in an instant, the wind singing its eternal lullaby through the trees lining the long misty valley. My worries floated away to the distant horizon while diamond-bright spangles glittered on the blue satin of the lake a thousand feet below…
“Aydan!” Kane’s voice jerked the tension back into my shoulders. “Can you give us something a little more defensible here?”
He and Germain stood facing outward on opposite sides of me, their weapons sweeping semi-circles around our exposed perch at the summit. A glance at the hard muscles in their jaws indicated that they didn’t find the vista nearly as calming as I did.
I sighed and materialized a sheer rock wall behind us.
Both men relaxed visibly, pla
cing their backs to the wall and continuing to scan the mountain and the sky above as if expecting an attack at any moment.
Another sigh leaked out before I could stop it. That constant vigilance was what made them the excellent agents they were. Unlike me, the dumb civilian who would undoubtedly cause them to die horribly…
The gut-wrenching screams of a man in unspeakable agony floated up from the valley below, rapidly gaining volume. Bulging muscles tensed beside me.
Kane shot a split-second glance in my direction before snapping his attention back to the valley. “Aydan? Are you doing that?”
I swallowed hard, willing the memory away. “Sorry. It’s okay. Nothing to worry about.”
Mountains. Sun. Wind. Open spaces.
Slow yoga breaths. Calm.
Concentrate, dammit.
The screams faded, leaving me trembling with reaction.
“You can come out now.” Jack’s sultry voice was a welcome sound.
Too wound up to navigate the corridor again, I dissolved the mountain sim and folded sim-space to place all three of us in front of the exit portal. Kane jerked his chin toward it, still watching the void around us, and I stepped gratefully through.
I opened my eyes in physical reality, frowning. “What the hell?”
Judging by my more-or-less unobstructed view of the ceiling, I must be lying on my back. A ring of worried faces hovered above me.
“Don’t move yet. Just lie still.” That was Jack.
“What happened?” I demanded.
“You lost consciousness. You were out for about thirty seconds.” Jack’s cool fingers pressed against the pulse point on my wrist. “How do you feel?”
“Fine.”
I sat up despite her attempt to press me back onto the sofa. The room whirled once before settling into reassuring stability, and I shook my head experimentally. Nothing untoward happened, so I rose and stretched, elation swelling into my heart.
“Why are you smiling?” Jack peered into my face. “Sit down until I’ve finished my diagnostics.”
I sat obediently, my grin spreading wide enough to make my cheeks protest.
“It didn’t hurt.” A laugh bubbled up and overflowed my lips. “Don’t you get it?” I seized Jack’s wrist and shook it gently for emphasis. “It didn’t hurt! It was painless!”
Her smooth forehead crinkled into a frown. “You were unconscious. That’s not an acceptable trade-off.”
“Only for a few seconds. And it didn’t hurt.” I resisted the urge to leap up and do a victory dance. “This is great! What did you change from the original key?”
Jack shot a troubled glance at Sam. “We’ve made a number of changes. And we’re nowhere near done testing. Don’t celebrate yet.”
I tamped down my happiness as best I could, but I couldn’t quite wipe the smile off my face. “So let’s test! What else do you need me to do? Should I try some decryptions next?”
“No…”
Jack frowned at Sam, who studied the floor, his fingers toying with his beard. When he dragged his gaze up, he eyed Kane fearfully before speaking to me. “You may not like… um… this next part…” He averted his eyes from Kane’s frown and extended a hand toward me instead. “Aydan, you know I never meant you any harm, don’t you?”
Trepidation crept up my spine on icy feet.
Kane’s hard voice made us both twitch. “But you did harm her. Repeatedly.”
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to…” Sam gave me an imploring look.
“Spit it out, Sam.” My voice was as hard as Kane’s, and Sam’s throat worked as he swallowed, his trembling hands knotting together in front of him.
“I, um…” Sam’s gaze darted to Jack’s remote expression and glacier-blue eyes before settling on a point just below my chin. “We, um… we need you to go back into the network using your original key. Um… under my mind control.”
Chapter 4
A heavy silence blanketed my office. Sam stood alone in the group, his hands clenching and then releasing to slide down his pant legs as though wiping sweat from his palms. A fine dew of perspiration glistened on his forehead.
“I’m not happy about this, either,” he blurted. “You nearly killed me last time. I could die…”
His words faded into a gulp as he apparently realized some members of the team might welcome that outcome.
Stemp remained expressionless, but Kane and Germain eyed him as if viewing some pale and slimy creature slithering from a cesspool.
“No!” Spider’s cry was pure dismay. “Aydan, no! Don’t trust him!” He shot a wide-eyed glance at Jack. “There has to be another way!”
“I’m afraid not,” she said slowly. “But we’ll put as many safeguards in place as possible.” She inclined her head at Kane and Germain. “That’s why you’re both here.”
“But it won’t help, we know it won’t!” Spider sprang to his feet, raking his fingers through his hair to leave it standing in untidy peaks. “He just makes her invisible and then he can do whatever he wants and we’ll never know…”
At last I managed to unlock my throat without letting a scream escape.
“No, it’s okay, Spider, you’ll know.” My voice came out in a dry croak, and I cleared my throat before speaking again. “My visible avatar goes silent and stops moving when he takes control.” I turned to lock eyes with Sam. “More to the point, I’ll know.” I did my best threatening growl. “You won’t fuck with me, will you, Sam? Because I won’t hesitate to fry you like I fried Bert Cartwright.”
The greasy smoke of a different cremation strangled me for an instant, but I wrestled the memory into submission. Just put on a good show. I won’t have to hurt him if he’s too scared to try anything in the first place…
Sam blanched gratifyingly. “I… of course I wouldn’t, Aydan, you know I wouldn’t… I’d never…”
“Good.” I hid my fear in a decisive tone. “Let’s do it, then. Jack, do you need me to do anything specific?”
“No, your role this time will be to let Sam control you.” Her words sent a wave of claustrophobic terror gushing through my veins, and I clenched my fists and fought the adrenaline with a slow, deep breath. Then another.
Calm. Stay calm.
“Just breathe.” Kane knelt beside the sofa, his grey gaze holding me above the sea of fear. “Just breathe,” he repeated softly. “We won’t let it go on for any longer than absolutely necessary.”
Damn Dr. Rawling and his goddamn therapy. I was better at hiding my feelings before he got started on me.
“Thanks. I’m fine.” I ignored the heat climbing my face and turned to Jack. “Whenever you’re ready.”
“All right.” She eyed me unhappily. “You’ll go into the network using your key as usual. Then Sam will take control…”
I breathed.
“…but he’ll only walk you down the virtual corridor to the door of the file repository. That’s it. Then he’ll release you.”
I managed a weak nod.
Stemp’s voice cut the silence like a razorblade. “If he deviates from the plan in the slightest, you have full authorization to use deadly force. Kane, Germain, likewise.” He drew a small gun, his reptilian features impassive. “I’ll supervise Dr. Kraus’s physical body here in the real world.” His flat eyes evaluated Sam as if measuring him for a coffin. “I’m sure we’ll have no problems.”
Sam gulped audibly and sank into a chair, his face ashen.
I clenched my fist around the tiny electronic device Jack handed me.
Fine. I was fine. Nothing bad would happen. Just a short test. Nothing, really. Only a few moments. I’d be fine.
“We’ll go in first and wait for you.” Kane took a seat beside Germain and a moment later their vacant eyes told me it was time to go.
Deep breath.
Fine. I’d be fine…
The void bloomed into existence, ropes already binding my hands. Bars thickened around me, blotting out the light…
> “Stop! Aydan, stop!” The cage yielded under the assault of Kane’s powerful shoulders. Germain slid through the gap, his arms spread to hold back the bars, his muscles bulging and knotting with the effort.
“Aydan, stop, you control this!” Kane’s voice penetrated my blind panic, and a moment later both men staggered at the sudden cessation of their effort when my prison evaporated into smoke.
“Sorry,” I panted. “Sorry. I’ve got it under control now.” My heart hammered in my chest. I hunched over to rest my elbows on my trembling knees, grappling for control over the jerky gasps that racked my body.
“Just breathe with me,” Kane murmured. “In. Out. Nice and slow.”
I straightened, embarrassment heating my face again. “I’m fine.” I willed the panic away. Fake it ‘til you make it. “Okay, Sam, let’s do this.”
When the sim turned syrupy around me, I screamed.
Screamed again and again, unable to stop myself while my visible avatar stood motionless and smothered in silence, its face frozen in a macabre mask of serenity.
With every fibre of my being I fought the need to lash out at the inexorable force that carried me away from my avatar, down the corridor toward the file room.
Everything as planned. Don’t fight. It’s fine. This is necessary.
The screams wouldn’t stop.
Despite my efforts to comply, I went rigid, resisting the invisible presence that rode me. The force intensified and I battled it unrestrained, all my will absorbed in clinging to the last shreds of sanity that would prevent me from immolating Sam in the sheer defensive terror of a trapped animal.
The release was so abrupt I tumbled to the floor of the virtual corridor, my suddenly-audible screams tearing the silence. Scrabbling frantically for purchase, I launched myself to my feet in pell-mell flight.
“No! Aydan, no! Stop!” Kane’s words made no sense.
As I dove for the portal, he and Germain sprang forward, their arms locking around me.
Spy, Spy Away Page 3