by H. G. Nadel
A bonfire. To attract teens and college kids, young people not yet set in their ways. People more susceptible, more willing to try her concoction of PCP. Julia groaned inwardly. She pictured herself tied to a stake in the midst of that fire, everyone from her graduating class standing in a circle, laughing at her as she roasted alive. Barbeque-style.
The car stopped. Julia’s door opened, and Jack yanked her out onto the asphalt of a parking lot. She landed on a jagged piece of glass, which tore through her stonewashed jeans and opened a deep gash in her knee as he dragged her to a kneeling position. He leaned into her face and said, “No point in yelling here, Heloise. You’re deep in enemy territory.” With that, he ripped the tape off her mouth. She sucked in great gulps of damp, salty air. As her breathing calmed, she heard the ebb and flow of ocean surf. He’d brought her to the beach.
She heard a clack-clack-clacking, which grew louder until two dainty feet in black Jimmy Choo stiletto sandals posed in front of her face, showing off a pampered row of turquoise toenails. She wondered where a middle-class student got the money for $700 shoes and why she was wearing them at the beach. Then again, Nadia did like to stand out in a crowd.
Julia rolled over to look up at her friend, who’d always been taller than her and who now looked like a giantess, her face nothing but a distant shadow in the moonlight. “Nadia! Get me out of here! What are you doing?”
“Julia,” Nadia said with real concern in her voice. “I know you’re scared right now, but this is for your own good.” A man’s hand rested on Nadia’s shoulder. Julia’s eyes moved from that hand, up the arm, to the shoulder, to the face of Dr. Bertel.
“What are you talking about?” Julia’s voice shook.
“How could you betray your mentor for a guy that you barely know? I know you stole the research. I found it in your bag.”
Julia’s eyes widened. “You’re the one who broke into my place and took my laptop?”
“I didn’t have to break in. Remember? You gave me a key so I could crash after parties. Julia, how could you be so naive?”
Julia was thinking the same thing. Her voice shook. “You’re in way over your head, Nadia.”
“You have it backwards, girlfriend. How did you think you could make it in the world of corporate espionage without getting arrested, when you couldn’t even get through a science fair without nearly getting people killed?”
“Way to kick a friend when she’s down.”
“You’re lecturing me on friendship when you kept this secret from me all summer?”
“Is that what bugs you? Not that I might have broken the law but that I kept a secret from you?”
“You shut me out when Austin came along. I just didn’t know why. But I’m still here for you. Can’t you see? I’m trying to help you.”
“Nadia, you’re smarter than this. Does this seem like an ordinary arrest to you? Does police brutality figure into your idea of arresting a teenage girl for a white-collar crime?”
“What brutality?”
Julia realized that it was too dark for Nadia to see her black eye and torn knee. “And why do you think Jack brought me here instead of taking me straight to jail?”
“Brought you here? You mean caught you here, don’t you? I told Bertel you’d probably come to my party, and he told the cops. Julia, I’m worried about you.”
“Nadia, you know me. You know I wouldn’t sell privileged information. I wouldn’t even let you cheat off my tests in trig.”
“Bertel told me how upset you were when he turned you down. He told me about the pass you made at him in his office that day—and when he pushed you away, you started screaming that you were going to make him sorry. So you planned to sell his info to get back at him and make some easy money at the same time.”
“That’s not me, and you know it!”
“I don’t know anything. Everyone knows you haven’t been yourself ever since your mom died.”
Julia locked eyes with Bertel, or rather, with Fulbert. Maybe Fulbert had the power of hypnosis, and he was using it on Nadia. When Nadia turned to look at Bertel again, he shook his head with such disappointment that for a moment Julia wondered if maybe she was losing her mind.
“Julia, I’m so sorry it came to this,” Bertel said. “I don’t think you’re a bad person, but clearly you need help.” He turned to Jack. “Thank you, Officer Alvarez.”
Nadia tugged on Bertel’s hand. “Come on, Caleb, let’s go back to the party. I’m really sorry, Julia.” Nadia shrugged and turned away. As the pair walked down to the beach, Bertel turned and gave Julia a sly smile. She thought it unlikely that Nadia would survive the night.
Julia half-expected Jack to put her back in his car to complete the illusion that this was an arrest. Instead, he yanked her to her feet and marched her toward a building across the parking lot. On the beach below, Julia saw a bonfire surrounded by some fifty young people. Firelight danced on their faces. She couldn’t make out their features clearly in the shifting red glow, but she could swear she saw Tyler, Rob, Britney, and Kate standing near a guy who was playing “Otherside” on a guitar. A bunch of people sang along. Then, in the darkness beyond the circle of light, someone turned up a recording of Muse’s “Apocalypse Please.” It conflicted with the guitar music, creating a discordance that jangled her already taut nerves.
“What the hell?” some guy barked.
“What’s your problem?” a girl shouted back.
“We’re singing here!”
“Yeah, well don’t quit your day jobs.”
“You jerks think you own the beach?”
“Do you?”
A shoving match started. Julia saw a sudden flash and heard a sound like a mosquito running into a bug zapper. Or someone getting zapped by a defibrillator.
“Kate? Kate!” someone shouted, terrified. “She’s unconscious.”
“She’s not breathing! Somebody call 911!”
“We can’t call 911. They’ll bust us for drugs.”
Jack opened a door and shoved Julia into an office. Then he slammed the door and locked it behind her. She was immersed in darkness.
TWENTY-FIVE
Julia struggled to wake. Her head was pounding, and her face and body were drenched in sweat. She whimpered, and the sound roused her. She sat up and hit the back of her head on something metallic, which made it pound more. Her surroundings were dark, but a faint light drifted in from outside. As her eyes adjusted she realized she was in an office, sitting behind a desk. She started to open her mouth, but it was taped shut again. The last thing she remembered was someone playing guitar on the beach. She must be in the lifeguards’ office.
Julia heard voices and keys jingling at the door. She tried to stand, which was hard to do because her hands were still cuffed behind her. She worked at bending and lowering her cuffed hands down to her legs so she could step through them. Someone flicked on a light switch, and the fluorescent tubes overhead hummed to life. She sat up, hands still behind her, squinting and blinking until the faces before her came into focus: Bertel, Jack, and Nadia. Nadia’s body swayed, and her eyes goggled as she tried to focus on her surroundings. She took in the room the way a toddler might take in Disneyland. She was obviously high.
This time, when Nadia’s eyes landed on Julia in the light, she looked shocked, and then terrified. “Oh my God, what did you do to her?” Her tan seemed to fade right before Julia’s eyes.
“We had to keep her from escaping,” Jack said.
“What do you mean? Why didn’t you just take her to jail? I thought you were a cop.”
“I was,” said Jack. “Until yesterday.” His right eye twitched in fluttering bursts, like he was trying to blink some sort of weird Morse code.
“I don’t understand any of this. You can’t treat someone like this!” Julia hated it when Nadia used that whining tone, but at least her so-called friend was finally standing up for her. Nadia’s eyes welled up, and her body shook. Julia hoped she wasn’t going to fall a
part now. Sympathy was one thing, but one of them needed to stay strong—and Julia wasn’t exactly in top shape at the moment.
Bertel leaned against a counter, watching Nadia’s breakdown with the curious, detached look of a boy setting ants on fire with a magnifying glass in the sun. “Perfect. I think Nadia’s ready for a change of scene. Don’t you, Tibaut?” He tipped a meaningful glance Jack’s way.
Jack stepped over to the counter, reached behind Bertel, and turned something on. To her horror, Julia heard a series of electronic beeps. It was a defibrillator. Oh no, Julia thought. That’s why Nadia has that look of dazed fascination. Bertel has already given her the PCP cocktail. Jack slathered conductive gel on the defib pads. Nadia looked from Jack to Bertel, confused.
Julia tried to scream, “No! Nadia, run!” But all that came out was “Nnn, Nnn!”
Bertel pulled Nadia over to the counter, stroked her face, and said, “Don’t be afraid,” in a hypnotic voice. She looked at him warily. He kissed her, hard, as she struggled to break free. Julia gagged as she pictured the demon inside Bertel sticking a black, forked tongue deep inside her friend’s mouth. It took a moment for her to register that this demon was, in fact, unbuttoning Nadia’s blouse. Then, in one swift move, Bertel stepped back, grabbed the charged defib pads from Jack, and pressed them against Nadia’s chest. Julia heard the jolt of electricity, smelled the faint scent of ozone, and saw her childhood friend’s body give one great spasmodic jerk before she fell to the floor—dead.
“Nnnnn!” Julia yelled against the tape. Tears stung her eyes, blurring her vision.
Bertel and Jack crouched over Nadia. Bertel held the defib pads in ready position, and Jack stared at his watch. She pictured them in medieval garb, standing over Pierre after maiming him—detached, unemotional. Julia didn’t know what to do.
Julia bent and wriggled more fiercely now, struggling to get her cuffed hands down to her feet, where she could step over them. For the first time, she felt grateful that Nadia had made her take gymnastics with her when they were kids, plus yoga for the past three years. Once the cuffs were in front, she reached up and ripped the tape from her mouth. Then, in a feat that required every ounce of her resolve, she spoke calmly.
“Dr. Bertel? Dr. Bertel, I know you’re still in there. Father Anselm told me you were still in there. You just have to fight. I’m here for you. Just try. Try to fight Fulbert. Don’t let him do this. I’ll pray with you. Okay? He says prayer can help.” She tried to think of what to say. She hadn’t prayed since she was a little girl. “Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name …” The words she hadn’t spoken for years were flowing from her with a power beyond her own.
“Shut up!” Jack snapped.
She pushed herself off the ground and wobbled to her feet. “Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven …”
Jack leaped at her and slapped her so hard, she flew backward. Unable to use her arms for balance, she landed against the jagged corner of an open drawer on a metal filing cabinet, which ripped open a gash in her hip. Her slacks were already congealed with blood from the cut in her knee, and now fresh blood dripped down her thigh to join it.
Lying in a heap, she continued to pray, “Give us this day, our daily bread …”
Suddenly Bertel turned to Julia, his face twisted with torment, his color draining from his face. “Julia? What’s going on? Why are you there? Did I do this? I am fighting so hard. Don’t give up on me.” Then he jerked to his feet, dancing there for a moment like an epileptic marionette, and then said in yet another voice, “My darling Heloise, don’t worry. I won’t ever hurt you. I love you.” Julia gasped. Bertel was still in there, but he was losing the battle.
Bertel turned back to examine Nadia’s body lying motionless on the floor. “Six minutes. Let’s call on our old friend, shall we?”
He zapped Nadia with the defibrillator again. She gasped and bolted upright, her eyes wide and vacant. A shadow of crimson passed over her eyes, turning to burgundy, and finally to black. Then she slumped back to the floor.
After a moment, Nadia sat up and turned to Julia. “So, Heloise, I see you’re back too. Came for Pierre, I know. You had your chance. And I say three’s a crowd.”
Julia stared at Nadia. “What’s with the British accent?”
“Heloise, don’t you remember Genevieve?” Bertel said. “She was confidante to the English Queen. Your beloved Pierre tutored her during one of his journeys to England. She seduced him with her considerable charms.”
“I’m sure she tried,” Julia said.
“Really! You give me so little credit, Heloise. Pierre tutored me in philosophy, and I tutored him in … other ways. I was irresistible before. But with this body?” Nadia, or whoever she was, ran her hands over her curves and spread her lips in a predatory grin. “No man can resist me—especially the new me.”
“Austin will.”
“Austin? Oh, you mean Pierre. What makes you so sure? He didn’t before.”
“So you say,” Julia said. “You and Fulbert think you can fool me, break my faith in the man I love. It won’t work.”
Nadia turned toward Jack, regarding him for the first time. “So now you’re a gendarme and assassin all in one, Tibaut! It is a seductive combination, I’ll admit. But you’re still just a commoner.” She spit on the floor, her face an ugly mask of derision.
Julia watched the change in Nadia with horror. Despite her faults, Nadia had a good and loyal heart. She was beautiful, popular, and brilliant. She was easily led, but she was certainly not evil. The moment Nadia’s pineal gland was electrified, this medieval femme fatale had made her move and taken over a body even more seductive than the one she’d had in the 12th century. But Julia knew that Nadia’s soul was still in there somewhere.
Nadia, hang in there, she thought. Fight to come back. As she looked at this new Nadia, called Genevieve, she was surprised at the animosity she felt—the jealousy, the stabbing pain of an old wound to the heart. As irrational as it was, she felt the urge to put her hands around the other young woman’s throat and strangle her. The thought made her stomach clench with fear, as she looked into Nadia’s eyes and saw the same violent feelings mirrored inside Genevieve. Her murderous eyes looked Julia up and down like a butcher at an animal before the slaughter.
Nadia walked haughtily toward Julia and circled her like a vulture.
“I’m certain you can guess my only question?” Nadia’s harsh voice brought Julia to attention.
“And mine,” Bertel said.
Julia gave them a blank stare. “What question?”
“I thought you were supposed to be smart,” Nadia snarled.
Bertel sighed in exasperation. “Will Pierre come to your rescue when you call him?” He waggled her cell phone in front of her face with demonic glee.
“She doesn’t need to call Austin.” Jack interrupted the scene. He held a cell phone to his ear and held up a single finger, indicating he was listening to a message. “He just left a message for Jack. I know exactly where he is. He called Julia’s father, who told him about her little visit to his lab. Austin’s headed there now.”
“Then go get him … again,” Bertel said. “And take extra men. Remember how he fought you the last time.”
Julia made one final attempt to persuade Bertel to call off the hunt. “Fulbert,” Julia said softly. “I’m not married to him. He’s not my boyfriend. That was all a long time ago. Call off the dogs and I’ll go with you.” She swallowed hard. “I promise.”
Fulbert put a hand to her face and caressed it softly. “If only that concern were for me.” His caress ended in a hard slap to Julia’s face. Bertel nodded at Jack, who winked at Julia and stalked out the door.
Julia hung her head in utter despair. Unless she could figure out a way to escape, Austin was going to be tortured all over again, and her life would once again become a living hell.
TWENTY-SIX
The party grew louder, and the orange reflecti
ons of the fire glowed brighter against the windows of the beach office. The crowd was getting drunker and higher than before—it wasn’t a hot dog and s’mores kind of bonfire, that was for sure. She looked down at the blood oozing onto her jeans from her torn knee and hip. It was starting to pool on the chair in which she was still sitting, waiting.
Dr. Bertel gazed at the blazing glass with a faraway look. His eyes didn’t have the look of a man who was on the verge of conquering the world. They were the eyes of a man who had lost everything. Empty, hopeless. That was a look that seemed more Bertel then Fulbert. Maybe it was.
“Hey Doc,” Julia said. “Remember the time we roasted weenies on Bunsen burners?”
He smiled. “You said they tasted like formaldehyde.”
“And you said that was impossible, because we didn’t have formaldehyde in the lab.”
“The power of memory: When you’re a high school science student, chemistry lab equals formaldehyde.”
“Anyway, it was fun. Dr. Bertel,” she ventured, “what do you say you free me, and we leave this party and go back and finish our research?”
Someone outside shouted. Bertel turned toward the sound. When he turned back to her, his eyes were hard, cold, certain. Fulbert’s eyes. “Why would I do that, when we can complete our research right here, tonight? We have all the bodies we need right outside. Soulless specimens ready for takeover, like your friend, Nadia.”
Nadia sat in the swivel chair behind the desk and spun it like a child. “A soulless specimen? For a scientist, you’re quite the poet, Fulbert.”
Someone banged on the door, and Julia heard Austin’s voice, shouting, “This is the police! Open up!”
Julia jumped to her feet and raced to the door. But Nadia was faster; she came from behind and held a gun to the other girl’s ear.
“Where did you learn how to handle a gun like that?” Julia asked.