Code Name: Baby

by Christina Skye

  Liz’s hands tensed. “It wasn’t a performance. I was worried about Diesel’s health. Kit also happens to be one of my best friends.”

  “But you set her up.”

  “I don’t know what you mean.”

  “You stirred up all the old stories about the Apache treasure hidden on her ranch. To cap the plan off, you had some fake maps distributed. It didn’t take much to pull Emmett and his friends to her ranch.”

  “How did you know—”

  “I’ve been watching you, honey. I’ve had someone in place since Mexico.”

  Liz flushed. “That was a mistake. I told you, we can’t be involved.”

  Cruz’s strong hands tightened. “And I said you were wrong. We are involved. I need you.”

  “When you called you said you were worried about the dogs.” Liz tried to stay cold and unemotional. She had loved Cruz once, but the man with her now seemed volatile and cold, almost a stranger.

  She had met him during one of her brother’s visits. Hank was deeply involved with the government’s animal bio-enhancement research, and Enrique Cruz had been his driver. Liz suspected he had been Hank’s bodyguard too, but she hadn’t asked for details.

  “She’s got the dogs. They know her, and not you. That bothers you, doesn’t it?”

  She shoved her hands into the pockets of her lab coat. “The research people wanted an outsider, and Kit has an excellent record for training success.” But he was right. Liz had helped Hank conceive the program. It made her angry that she couldn’t have a bigger role in the dogs’ training, but her brother had ordered her to keep out of the way and say nothing to Kit, only to watch.

  “I’m worried about Diesel.”

  “You don’t need to worry. He’ll be fine. It’s a temporary inflammation. All the animals experience that.”

  “How do you know?”

  Cruz shrugged. “I’ve had some first-hand involvement. Let’s leave it at that.”

  Liz stared at his hands. Once he had been ruggedly handsome. Now his hands shook and his eyes were hollows of madness.

  “Why are you here, Enrique? It’s been months since we…” She flushed and looked away. “Since Mexico.”

  “You want more time with the dogs?”

  She nodded.

  “I can help you have that. I have found someone interested in private research. He will pay well for the dogs. You can go with me and oversee the work. There will be all the money you want for a facility and workers.”

  “Take them from Kit, you mean?”

  “They’re not hers. They belong to the government. But I can change that—and you can be part of the plan.” His voice fell. “Time is running out. My buyer isn’t a patient man.”

  “I don’t understand. Who is this person? Where—”

  “There will be time for all your questions later. For now you need to trust me, Liz.”

  “How can I trust you? I hardly know you now. You’re different, Enrique.”

  She had been checking on Diesel, almost ready to curl up on the sofa she kept in her office when her inside door opened and he had appeared. She still didn’t understand how he had gotten inside with all the doors locked.

  On the examining table Diesel whined weakly, his breathing labored. She wondered if it was a simple problem, the way Cruz had explained. Frowning, she checked the IV line.

  “He’ll be fine. I already told you that.”

  She turned sharply, anger overcoming her confusion. “How do you know so much about these dogs?”

  “I got a detailed look at what they can do. I saw your brother at work in the lab, remember?” He glanced at the cabinets nearby. “Are there any vitamins here?”

  “A few.” She pointed to the far wall. “But they’re for animal use only.”

  He strode to her cabinets. “That will be fine. I need your amino acids, too.”

  Shaking her head, she scanned a nearby drawer. “In there.”

  Cruz grabbed three bottles and checked their contents. “What about kelp or iodine?”

  “I don’t think so.” She started to ask why he wanted them, but the look in his eyes kept her quiet.

  “Get me all the other pills you have. Do it now.”

  His sharp order surprised her. She took a step back, frightened but trying not to show it.

  The tremor in his hands was growing worse. What if she shoved a lab chair at him and made a run for the back door?

  “Forget it. You aren’t fast enough or strong enough.” His smile was cold as he dumped a bottle onto its side, scattering pills over the counter.

  “What are you looking for? If it’s tranquilizers or amphetamines—”

  “They don’t sell the mix that I need.” He tipped six pills into his hand and swallowed them dry. “High potency aminos—mainly L-glutamine. My system runs hot now. One more side effect of—”

  “Of what?” Liz was almost afraid to ask.

  “The program they pulled me into. High tech and very secret.” He studied the pills scattered on the nearby counter. “These will do for today, but I’ll need kelp for the iodine. Thyroid changes are routine and I’ll have to adapt to new intake requirements.”

  Did that explain all the differences she saw in this man she had once loved and admired?

  “What’s wrong? What are you worrying about?”

  Liz forced a smile. “You’ve learned a lot, that’s all. I’m surprised.” Could he read her mind now?

  “I had time on my hands. I turned myself into something of a chemist living inside my cage.”

  “Cage? What do you mean, Enrique?”

  “Forget it.” He scanned the room. “I need a scalpel.”

  She swallowed, rigid with fear. He’d become delusional. His comment about the cage proved that. What if he turned on her?

  “I need your help, Liz. Sedate the dog and I’ll transport him tonight to my buyer. After I have the other dogs, we’ll vanish like smoke in rain. Ten million dollars will buy you a lab and time to complete the research you started with your brother, and in a few years you’ll have dozens of dogs—with no one giving you orders or cutting you out of the research.”

  God help her, she was tempted. With that kind of money she could develop her theories about cortical stimulation without interference or distraction.

  But to do that she’d have to leave the country she loved. She could never stay here after doing what he suggested. She would become a fugitive and a traitor.

  She looked out the window into the darkness and realized that success—the kind he promised—carried too high a price tag. “I can’t do this.”

  “I want you, Liz. But you’re going to have to pick a side. It’s the government or me.”

  She hesitated a moment longer, seduced by all he promised. But she no longer trusted this man to keep to their agreement that no one—and no animals—were to be hurt. She shrugged. “I can’t leave this country, Enrique. The government has been good to me. They’ve supported my research all this time. There’s too much at stake for me to leave now.”

  And she was afraid. Deathly afraid.

  Afraid of the glitter in his eyes and the tremor in his hands. What had happened to him in that secret program he’d mentioned?

  “You’re telling me no?”

  She took a deep breath and nodded.

  “I’ve thought about you every day for weeks. That kept me fighting when I would have given up.” He caught her chin in his hand, forcing her to look at him. “Tell me it’s over.”

  “Enrique, don’t do this.”

  “Tell me.”

  “Fine. It’s over.” She struggled to make her voice calm. “I can’t leave my clinic and my work. I can’t betray my government.”

  “But you can betray me?”

  “If you force me to choose, yes. That’s my answer.”

  “I won’t let you go,” he said harshly. “It’s too late for you to back out. Now where are your scalpels?”

  Reluctantly, she pointed to a locked
drawer in the side of an examining table.

  “Open it.”

  “I don’t have anything—”

  “Do it now.”

  With trembling hands, she unlocked the drawer. Cruz studied the array of blades lined up inside. He pulled out the biggest one and held it up to the light. He seemed to have forgotten her as he picked up two more scalpels and pulled off his shirt. He stretched his left arm across the examining table and jammed the scalpel into the fleshy part of his forearm four inches above his wrist, then blotted the wound with a piece of gauze.

  “You’re not the only one who can do surgery. Your brother taught me how to do this.”

  “Hank? When?”

  “Eight months ago. He was testing one of these.” Cruz held up a small silicon chip flecked with blood and laughed harshly. “That leaves five of them left inside me.” He lifted the chip with a pair of tweezers and carefully broke off one edge. His face was grim as he carried the fragment to the bathroom and flushed it down the toilet. He came back with a glass of hydrogen peroxide, which he used to clean the chip thoroughly.

  Liz watched every move, fascinated despite her fear and revulsion. “What is it?”

  “A government tracking device—new design with internal power. Don’t worry. I used a magnet in the lab to throw off the readings.” He stretched out his opposite arm and dug into the same spot, showing no reaction to the blood staining the table. “I’m a very valuable commodity, you see.”

  Liz swallowed. “Who put those chips inside you?”

  “Your brother’s team at Los Alamos. He designed them.”

  Liz paled. “That’s impossible.”

  “Hank didn’t tell you his team was testing on human subjects?”

  “He told me they were five years out, at the very soonest. He said there would be primate tests first, then monitored short-term trials on larger mammals before—”

  “He lied.” Cruz’s whole body seemed to vibrate with barely contained energy as he dug out another chip. “Clinical trials and safety protocols aren’t on your brother’s agenda.” Carefully, he cleaned the second chip and set it on a piece of clean surgical gauze.

  “What does that one do?”

  Cruz carefully broke off another fragment. This one, too, was flushed down the toilet. “Monitors my heart and all bio-systems. The lab rat has to stay healthy enough to run through all the mazes.” After wrapping both chips in more sterile cotton, Cruz sealed them inside a plastic specimen bag. “To the right people these are worth a villa in Florence. Maybe even a private island in the Pacific.”

  When he touched her jaw, Liz felt old scars on his fingers. She couldn’t hide a shudder.

  His eyes narrowed. “Stop running away from me.”

  She took a step back and crossed her arms at her chest, forcing herself not to pull away. There was no way to predict what would set him off. “Clean your arm. There’s alcohol in the drawer.”

  He held the scalpel in front of him, studying the blood that darkened the blade. “You think I can’t feel that I scare you?” When she didn’t answer, he slid the flat side of the scalpel down her cheek, marking her with his blood.

  “No.” She prayed he wouldn’t see it was a lie.

  Turning away, he sat on a nearby chair and stretched out his leg. Without a word he held his thigh and dug the scalpel in deep until blood welled up over his jeans. His face showed no emotion as he pulled out a third chip and studied it in tense silence. Then he smiled. “This one is the best,” he said. “Second generation nano-technology. It should net us another million on top of the ten.” He wrapped this chip up like the others, but sealed it inside a separate bag.

  “Why, Enrique? What did they do to you?” she whispered.

  “They made me into a god,” he said gravely. “Or maybe a monster. Lately, I get the two mixed up.” He studied the blood on his hands intently.

  She couldn’t watch him any more. She was checking Diesel’s IV when the dog barked weakly and sat up on wobbly legs, then toppled back in a heap on the table, eyes glazed. Quickly she pulled a syringe out of a locked cabinet.

  “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

  “I’m giving him the epinephrine I should have given him fifteen minutes ago. Unless you want him to die on that table.”

  Scowling, Cruz moved out of her way. “Give him what he needs. He’s worth more to me alive than dead.” He glanced at his watch. “The trainer should be here soon.” He leaned closer, his finger tracing her mouth. “Not a word about me, remember?”

  She kept her face blank, nodding.

  “When does your cleanup boy show up?”

  “Not for an hour. Tommy has early soccer practice this morning.”

  Cruz’s eyes narrowed. “When he gets here, send him home.” His hand lowered, cupping her breast. When Liz turned, she saw their joint reflection in the mirror.

  She shoved him away, repelled by his alien behavior. “I already told you. I won’t betray my friend or my country.”

  She saw a muscle twitch at his forehead, then he pushed her back against a row of cages. “It seemed easy when you first told me what you wanted to do. It didn’t seem real then.”

  “This is all very real, believe it.”

  A dog barked in a nearby cage. With one fixed glance, Cruz sent the animal whimpering back into a corner.

  What kind of man had powers like this?

  “Frightened now?”

  She met his gaze angrily, her pulse pounding in her ears. “Terrified. Does that please you?”

  He shook his head slowly. “I don’t want your fear. I want you to understand. I need someone to understand.”

  Liz tensed as footsteps crossed the front porch. “That’s Tommy. They must have cancelled his practice today.”

  “Get rid of him.” His fingers tightened on her arm. “Not one word about me, understand?”

  She jerked free. With shaking hands she smoothed her lab coat. Forcing a smile, she opened the door to the waiting area.

  Tommy Woo was sixteen years old and skinny enough to be twelve. He was putting away his key and trying not to yawn as he pulled off his jacket. “Morning, Doctor Liz. No soccer today.” He glanced around the waiting room. “You want me to run the vacuum in here before I start cleaning out the cages in back?”

  Liz tried not to think about Cruz, deadly and watchful behind her. “Actually, I’m not feeling well today, Tommy. I’m going to cancel my office hours and go home.”

  “You have the flu that’s going around?” The teenager shook his head. “Man, I hear that stuff is wicked.” He pointed at a pair of full garbage cans and scratched his head. “You sure you don’t want me to clean up a little first?” He started for the door behind Liz. “I’ll just get the vacuum cleaner and—”

  She grabbed his arm. “There’s no need. Really.” She forced herself to relax. “The garbage can wait, Tommy.” She faked a string of noisy coughs. “I’d hate to give you this bug.”

  The teenager stared uncertainly at the back room. “I think something just fell in there. It sounded like a box of pills or something. Maybe I should—”

  “No.” Liz forced a smile as she stepped in front of the boy. “I’ll pay you anyway. After all, it’s my sick day, not yours.”

  Tommy stared back at the closed door to the examining area. “Well,” he said slowly. “If you’re sure…”

  “I’m sure. Really.” As Liz tossed him his coat, she blocked his path to the examining area. “Tell your mom thanks for the fried dumplings, by the way. They were wonderful.”

  “Cool. She’ll be really glad to hear that. It’s the ginger she uses—or something.” Tommy shrugged on his jacket and stifled another yawn. “I can use a few hours off. I’ve got a Calculus exam today and it’s going to be a real bitch.” His face went red. “Uh, sorry.” He walked to the door, staring out into the gray sky. “Weird weather we’ve been having. I can’t remember this kind of off-and-on-rain. Yesterday it even snowed for about twenty minu
tes.” He paused, one hand on the knob. “Broke some kind of record, I heard.”

  Leave, please, Liz thought. “I didn’t know that. There was no snow here in town.”

  “Up north in the foothills, they said. Very weird.” He turned suddenly. “Hey, I almost forgot. I left my French notebook in the back room yesterday when I was cleaning up. I’d better go—”

  Liz gripped his arms, her heart pounding. “It’s a mess back there now so why don’t I find your notebook and drop it off on my way home? I should be done here in about ten minutes.” Liz lowered her voice. “Tell your mom I’ll be over shortly, okay? Can you do that? Ten minutes, Tommy. I’ll definitely be there. Tell her that,” she whispered urgently.

  “Uh, sure.” The boy looked totally confused now. “Ten minutes. Whatever.”

  Liz watched him shoulder his backpack. For the first time in hours she felt a grain of hope. Tommy’s father was a deputy sheriff. If she didn’t show up, Brian Woo might come check out the clinic, looking for her.

  Maybe she could get away…

  “See you, Dr. Liz.”

  The door closed.

  Behind her the examining room door opened. “Come here.”

  She tried to walk away. She put all her focus and will into moving her legs. But they didn’t seem to work right. Despite every wish, they carried her back toward the grim man in the doorway.

  When she stopped beside him, his hand caught her shoulder. “Ten minutes?” he repeated mockingly. “His dad’s a deputy, I understand.”

  She looked down, trying to hide her despair. “So what?”

  “You shouldn’t have done that, honey. I told you that I need you.”

  She moaned as he shoved her back against the wall. Summoning all her strength, she jammed her heel into his instep and lunged at him with the scalpel hidden in her pocket. The blade flashed out and sank deep into his side between two ribs.

  Furious, he picked her up and threw her against the wall as if she were a rag doll. She felt the bones in her wrist collapse, splintering under her skin, and pain drove her to the edge of unconsciousness.

  When the haze cleared, Cruz was gripping her shoulder, jerking her to her feet while she sobbed, her face wet with tears and smeared blood.