Emergency Contact

by Susan Peterson

  Across the short distance between them, her gaze locked on him. They pleaded with him to help her. To do something. Anything. He tried to throw the two goons off him, but they bore down harder.

  Flynn wrapped his arms around her, holding her secure against him, his face a mask of determination. He nodded at Bloom and the man stepped gingerly closer.

  “Ryan! Don’t let them take me!” Tess begged. She tried to twist out of Flynn’s arm, but he jammed his knees into the back of hers, buckling her legs from beneath her.

  Rage ripped through Ryan, sending a jolt of adrenaline through his system. He threw the two goons off him and pulled himself to his feet, struggling the short distance to reach her.

  The needle was inches from Tess’s thigh. Ryan clamped a hand on Bloom’s shoulder and jerked him backward. But then it was if he was hit by a tree from behind.

  His legs went numb and he dropped to his knees again. As he pitched forward onto his face, he saw one of the goons slap a blackjack against his meaty palm and grin. Ryan’s left cheek hit the grass and his head bounced.

  Ryan reached out and touched Tess’s shoe. But he couldn’t move. Someone had dropped down to sit on his back and someone else had jammed his foot on the back of his neck, effectively pinning him to the ground.

  “Let her go,” he said, his voice sounding faraway even to his own ears. He spit dirt and blood.

  He watched helplessly as Flynn subdued Tess. She struggled, but he was too strong for her. She threw her head back, attempting to head-butt him. But he seemed to anticipate her every move and he tightened his grip.

  Bloom moved toward her.

  “Don’t do this, Sidney,” Ryan said.

  Tess whipped her head in Bloom’s direction. Her lips were drawn back over her teeth like a cornered animal. “Don’t come any closer!”

  Not waiting a moment, Bloom stuck the needle in Tess’s right hip, injecting her right through the fabric of her pants. Air hissed between her teeth.

  “You bastard.” Her voice was fractured, broken, but Ryan could still hear the edge to it, the touch of defiance.

  His heart hammered in his chest, and he tried again to throw the man off him. But whoever was on him held firm.

  Tess tried to jackknife her body, but Flynn held her easily.

  “You can’t do this to me,” she protested.

  “We just did,” Flynn said, his expression bland. Emotionless. He snapped his fingers at one of the goons. “Get her in the car. And sit next to her. I don’t trust the medication to keep her quiet for long.”

  “It won’t,” Tess said, her voice still edgy, but Ryan could see that the drug was already having an effect. She shook her head as if dazed and blinked rapidly several times as if her vision was clouding.

  Whatever they had given her was powerful.

  She looked around, as if confused, unable to focus. Finally her gaze settled on him. “I—I’m not crazy.”

  The words were slurred and jumbled. She squeezed her eyes shut for a minute, as if trying to concentrate. Finally she opened her eyes and tried again, each word distinct. Every syllable was heartrendingly clear. “Don’t believe what they’re saying about me.”

  “I don’t, Tess. I believe you.” He reached out and touched her foot, and Tess could feel the pressure of his fingers through the fabric of her socks, the warmth of his fingers soaking through to her toes. Even though she knew she had lost the battle, she was comforted. He was close. He believed her.

  “How touching,” Flynn sneered. He picked her up and the comforting touch of Ryan’s hand disappeared. An emptiness cloaked her, leaving her cold.

  Tess slipped into a deep hole, her world starting to fade around the edges. Her head lolled back against her father’s shoulder and her eyelids fluttered. Her mouth moved, but no words came out.

  She could hear Ryan talking, that deep, beautiful voice of his reaching down into the pit she was getting sucked into and trying to pull her back to the surface. “It’s all right, Tess. Don’t fight it. Just let go. You’re all right. I won’t let them hurt you.”

  She tried to lift her head, to tell him that she’d hang on. That she wouldn’t give up fighting no matter what. But when she tried to reach out to touch him, he seemed miles away, and it was as if someone had slipped a hundred-pound-weight around her wrist, keeping her from lifting her hand.

  She shook her head violently, rolling it back and forth. “N-no! Not okay. Not—not all right. Don’t le—let them take me away. You promised, dammit.”

  Tess saw the distress on Ryan’s face, the tortured concern. He opened his mouth as if to say something more to her, but the darkness, a yawning emptiness snatched her, pressing her down.

  She heard Ryan’s voice from somewhere far-off, a voice that promised her she wouldn’t get hurt, that she’d be safe.

  She wanted to stand up and rage back at him. To make him understand that she wouldn’t be okay. That she’d never be safe as long as Flynn had her, but she didn’t have the strength.

  All feeling leaked out the tips of her fingers, and her tongue, ten sizes too large for her mouth, seemed to choke her. Every muscle in her body froze and she was unable to move.

  And as her vision completely shut down, Tess wondered if she’d ever see Ryan Donovan again.

  Chapter Seven

  The goon sitting on Ryan got up, allowing him to pull himself to a sitting position. Ryan used one hand to keep himself from falling over and, as he leveraged himself to his feet, stumbled several steps before regaining his balance.

  The two goons ignored him, working together to load Tess into the back seat of the limo.

  Ryan turned to Flynn. “Are you taking her to the center?”

  “Hardly,” Flynn scoffed. “After this fiasco I have no desire to have Tess involved with anyone at the Bloom Research Facility. We’ll be leaving on my private jet shortly. She’ll return to the facility she was in before I had the misfortune to think anyone in Half Moon, Iowa, would know anything that would be of any help to Tess.”

  “What facility are you taking her to?”

  Flynn laughed. “Nice try, Doctor.” He bent down to climb into the limo, but then he stopped and straightened up. His gray eyes were cold mirrors of ill-concealed rage. “Don’t make the mistake, Doctor, of thinking that your concern and your misguided loyalty to Tess will be tolerated. If you try to find her, I will press harassment charges.” He turned away, adding, “If I’m not mistaken, legal difficulties of that nature could result in one having their license revoked.”

  Ryan stepped closer. “Don’t threaten me, Flynn. It will be a cold day in hell before I forget what happened here today. Plan on looking over your shoulder and finding me standing there.”

  “A shame,” Flynn said. “A man should know when his career is about to tank.” He climbed into the limo and slammed the door.

  Ryan moved around to the other side. Bloom had the door open, giving final instructions to Chief Cole. Most likely something about making sure that Ryan didn’t try to follow the limo. He bent down and checked on Tess.

  She lay between the two orderlies, her hair in disarray, several strands caught between her lips. Her eyelashes were dark spikes across the paleness of her cheek, and she lay with her legs drawn up and her fists clenched in front of her, as if she’d simply quit in the middle of a fierce battle.

  Even after the ordeal she’d been through, she looked beautiful and defenseless. Vulnerable. Ryan’s heart tightened.

  Bloom stepped in front, blocking his view. “Leave it alone, Ryan.”

  “I can’t leave it alone,” Ryan said, incredulous that his former mentor would even consider asking him to do such a thing. “Any way you look at this, it’s wrong.”

  “Not according to the authorities,” Bloom said. “You tried to help her, and now her father is taking over.”

  Ryan stepped closer. “Something’s wrong with that guy, Sid. Don’t let him take her. Let me at least call a few friends, check things out. I’m gettin
g really bad vibes here.”

  Bloom waved a hand dismissively. “You’re too emotionally involved with this woman to see things clearly.” He climbed into the back of the limo. “Perhaps your behavior today explains what happened in Boston. I advise you to get your act together before you find yourself looking for another job.”

  The door slammed and the limo shot down the driveway. A few seconds later, it roared off.

  “So not only have you gotten yourself beat up, you’ve alienated your boss. Not bad for a single day’s work,” Cole remarked.

  Ryan stared after the limo. “You’re not much of a lawman, Cole, if you’d stand by and let a bunch of thugs man-handle a woman like that.”

  Cole climbed into his car. “Still trying to push buttons, huh, Doc?”

  “I thought you wanted Tess down at the station for questioning.”

  “Oh, I know where to find her if I need to talk to her.” He tipped his hat back on his head. “Now don’t you be thinking about following that limo, Doc. I’ll be trailing behind it to the airport and if I see that fancy little sports car of yours anywhere near it I’ll be running your ass in.” He started his car’s engine and leaned an arm out the window. “We understand each other?”

  “I understand the sad fact that they’ve bought you off.”

  “Man’s gotta make a living, Doc. But you didn’t hear that from me.” He put his car in Reverse and backed slowly down the driveway. He waved as he took off in the same direction as the limo.

  Ryan glanced down at himself. He was covered with grass and dirt. He swiped a hand across his mouth, coming away with blood.

  He needed to clean up and get out to the center. If he couldn’t follow Tess, he could at least start making calls, finding out where her father was taking her. He still had a few contacts that would help him out.

  Tracking Tess down wasn’t going to be easy, but Ryan had no intention of leaving her in the hands of the man who treated her so brutally.

  AFTER SHOWERING and dressing, Ryan ran to his car and slid into the front seat. He slipped his cell phone into its carrier and backed out of the driveway. As he jammed the shift into Drive, he dialed the center.

  He paused at the end of the driveway, punched in the extension for the hematology lab and waited.

  He heard the click of the transfer and a few seconds later an impatient voice snapped, “If you people don’t quit bothering me, I won’t get anything done down here.”

  Relief washed over Ryan. His friend, Craig Freedman, the head of the hematology lab was exactly who he wanted to talk to. “You sound a little stressed, Craig.” He forced a touch of humor into his voice.

  “Donovan,” Freedman growled, his tone warming a millimeter. “Damn clerk called in sick again, and they didn’t send me a sub. I’ll be stuck answering the phone all day, and to add to the indignity, people keep sending me stupid lab requests on inadequate drops of blood. What the hell do you want?”

  “The results on a stupid lab request, of course.”

  Freedman grunted. “What’s the name?”

  “Doe. Tess Doe.”

  “Hang on and I’ll see if it’s done.” Ryan could hear the man’s fingers fly over the keys of his computer as he searched the file. “Got it. A BCC, Tox screen and drug panel, right?”

  “That’s the one. Anything of interest show up?”

  “Actually, yes. Your little lost lamb had a snootful of what you shrinks used to call a sleep cocktail.”

  “Thorazine?”

  “Yep. In addition to Nembutal, Seconal, Phenergan and Veronal.”

  Ryan whistled through his teeth. “I didn’t think anyone was using that particular combination anymore. Not since the sixties anyway.”

  “Well, either you’ve got a Rip Van Winkle doc treating this patient or someone who didn’t attend the lecture in med school that talked about the unethical use of certain drug concoctions.”

  “Did you find anything else?”

  “That’s not enough for you?”

  “Come on, Craig. What else did you find?”

  Craig sniffed. “Good thing your patient holds a certain fascination for me. I ran a couple of other tests to see what I’d find and, lo and behold, I actually found something.”

  “What?”

  “You’ve got me.”

  “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

  “Exactly what I said. I have no idea what I found. She’s got some kind of new chemical compound swimming around in her bloodstream. An unknown. It’s got some similarities to Thorazine, but it’s a total hybrid. In other words, a new drug.”

  Ryan gripped the wheel tighter. “You’re sure?”

  “Of course I’m sure,” Craig snapped.

  “Send me up a copy of the findings, all right?”

  “They’re on their way to your office as we speak. You’ll find them on your desk as soon as you get your hide in here.”

  He wrapped the conversation up a few minutes later and replaced the phone in its cradle. He sat back, a sense of unease niggling at the back of his neck.

  An unknown compound. A new drug.

  Something was definitely going on and he wanted to know what.

  THE ROOM WAS STERILE WHITE. A combination of glaring white walls and steel, a dazzling white-tiled floor and stark, whitewashed furniture with shiny steel knobs and hinges.

  General Flynn clasped his hands behind his back and settled into a comfortable parade rest. Staring through the stretch of glass that separated the control room from the examination room, he considered the form stretched out on the stainless-steel table in the middle of the room.

  Tess lay on her back, her arms and legs secured to the table with leather fleece-lined cuffs. She was dressed in a pair of thin green hospital pants and a white tank top.

  A strap across her forehead kept her head from moving from side to side. Not that it was necessary at the moment as she was unconscious and totally limp. A pair of high-tech headphones were clamped over her ears, sealing out all noise from the room.

  Flynn knew that a preprogrammed tape was being filtered through the headphones—a tape with his voice on it. He knew the prerecorded message was telling Tess what he expected of her. A job to be carried out in less than a week.

  So little time. So much to accomplish.

  A technician, dressed in a white lab coat, stood near the head of the table and Flynn watched as the woman efficiently injected the end of a needle into a small glass vial and drew up a liquid. When she withdrew the needle, she used one bright-red-tipped finger to flick the barrel of the syringe, eliminating any air bubbles.

  Turning, she swabbed an alcohol pad over the rubber stopper on the IV tubing connected to Tess’s arm. She removed the cap on the syringe and then stuck the needle into the rubber diaphragm of the IV tubing, pushing in the plunger.

  The medication slid effortlessly into Tess’s body.

  “You’re sure she’s totally unaware of anything going on around her?” Flynn asked, not bothering to turn around.

  “Yes,” Bloom said from somewhere behind him. “I find that she responds best to your voice when she’s in a deep trance. If she’s in a light sleep, she fights too much.”

  Flynn glanced at the TV monitor mounted over the glass. It framed a close-up of Tess’s face. Her skin was startlingly pale. She hadn’t gotten much sun these past six months, not when she’d been locked up deep within the top-secret basement of the center.

  She was indeed beautiful. Untouched almost. Flynn understood well Ryan Donovan’s desire to be her champion. But the young doctor had no idea what he’d stumbled into, and if the good doctor didn’t watch out, he wouldn’t be stumbling into anything ever again. He’d be dead.

  It was a good thing that Bloom seemed to be somewhat in control of the young man’s curiosity. Flynn had a strong feeling that in any other situation, Donovan would be someone to be reckoned with. Thankfully, the low-level researcher had no knowledge or access to this part of the research facility.<
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  Flynn turned back toward Bloom. The doctor stood over the shoulder of a technician who was monitoring one of the computers giving him a readout on Tess’s physiological reactions to the medication.

  “What happens if she’s not ready in time?” Flynn asked.

  “She’ll be ready,” Bloom said, not bothering to look up. “I’ve already planted the trigger word in her memory. A few more sessions and I’ll be able to reintroduce the memories we had to wipe clean earlier.”

  “And if she’s not ready? What then?”

  There was no missing the flicker of impatience that slid across Bloom’s face. But Flynn had to give the man credit. Before lifting his head, he carefully composed his face. “We’ll do what we always said we’d do. We’ll use McCaffrey. He’s her backup.”

  “That has the potential to cause more problems at this late date. He doesn’t have the connections with Starling that Tess has.”

  “No, but we planned for that possibility. McCaffrey is on the guest list as Tess’s date for the reception. He’ll have the access he needs should Tess not be able to fulfill her duty for whatever reason. We agreed from the start that Tess could get the closest, but that McCaffrey was our ace in the hole.”

  The technician interrupted by pointing to the monitor. Bloom nodded and reached down and flicked a switch. “Marsha, give her another five cc’s please.”

  The nurse inside the examination room nodded and drew up the medication, injecting it into the IV tubing.

  Flynn turned halfway around and studied his stepdaughter’s body strapped to the examination table. “Is it safe to increase her dosage like that? I mean, she’s been without the drug for an entire day and then some.”

  Bloom ignored him and reached over the technician’s shoulder to tap the tip of his pen against the monitor screen. “Run a comparison on that reading with her initial EEG.” He straightened up and glanced at Flynn. This time he made no effort to hide his irritation at another interruption. “Perhaps, General, you’d prefer to wait in your suite. I’m a tad busy at the moment. I’ll meet you later to give you a rundown on the results from this reprogramming session.”