She no longer knew what was worse. Being chained in that basement, or running for her life.
At least this time, the company was far better.
She caught a glimpse of Mason staring out the window at the parking garage across the street, where they hid the Jeep.
She laughed shortly on the bed. Mason gave her a look.
She thought the day would end with them in a hotel room together. But the circumstances were far different.
Mason left the light off. He sat on the edge of the bed next to Kelly.
“We should be okay here,” he said.
She turned toward him on her side. “So, we just wait?”
He nodded. “Yeah. They won't hurt Lisa. I hate it, but we're not in control.”
Kelly glanced at the clock on the nightstand. It was close to one o'clock in the morning. Her body was tired, but she knew she wouldn't sleep anytime soon.
She grabbed him by the back of his shirt and pulled him down next to her. They kicked their shoes off and got comfortable on the bed. She needed to be close to him, to feel him. She knew if Mason wasn't with her she wouldn't be as calm. He somehow kept her together.
She kissed him softly as she pressed more into him. She hooked his leg with her foot and pulled him closer. They wrapped their arms and legs around each other. He slipped an arm under her neck and held her close.
She could feel him shaking.
“Are you okay?”
He turned on his back. She inched closer still, laying on his arm and throwing a leg over his waist. She leaned over and kissed his cheek.
“I'm, uh, I'm scared. I'm not sure how to get us out of this.”
She squeezed him. She had faith in him. He had found her all those years ago, locked away in a remote house in the woods. He was capable of anything, even if he didn't know it himself.
“You'll think of something.”
“I'm sorry I got you mixed up in this.”
“Hey. I don't blame you. I don't even blame my father.”
He caressed her cheek. She could barely see his eyes from the light spilling in from the window. No one in her life had ever looked at her the way Mason did. Just looking into his eyes, she thought she would forget everything else around them.
“So,” she said, letting her hand fall to his hip. She looked down at his chest, afraid to hold his gaze. “I hope I didn't freak you out with what I said before.”
He quickly flipped through old conversations in his head. He only guessed she was talking about one thing.
“About love?”
She nodded. “I don't know when it happened. But I won't talk about it anymore. I didn't mean to make you feel-”
He cut her off with a kiss. She lost herself in the moment and kissed him back. They felt and explored each other for nearly a minute.
He pulled back an inch and rested his forehead against hers.
“I think part of me fell in love with you when we were sixteen,” he said.
She smiled, then leaned in for another kiss.
As soon as their lips touched, Mason's cell phone rang. He took a deep breath, then they separated and sat up on the bed.
“Hello?”
“That was impressive work at the hospital,” Suit said. “Maybe we should have picked you over Gabriel.”
“I want Lisa back.”
“Tomorrow night, at the docks off of Winter Road. Just bring the flash drive, and we'll bring Lisa. Then you go back to your life.”
Suit hung up.
Mason dropped the phone on the bed. He leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees. Kelly rubbed his back. He repeated the fifteen second conversation to her.
“So, we lay low until then?” she asked.
He nodded. There was nothing else they could do.
“I guess we should get some sleep,” he said. He looked at the bed. “I'll sleep on the floor, if you want.”
“No, you won't. I promise I won't make any moves.” She smiled a little, realizing she was once again stealing his line. “But Mason, let's be serious. If we all make it out of this alive, you'd better get used to sleeping with me.”
He turned red, but she couldn't tell in the darkness.
“I get the bathroom first,” she said.
She went back to the door to turn the light on. They both squinted at the sudden bright light. Mason kept his eyes on her bare legs as she crossed the room, not bothering to hide it. She felt his eyes on her and gave him a smile.
Mason listened to her shower as he tried to figure out what to do. Part of him wanted to go to the police, but Suit made it clear that wasn't a good idea, and Mason believed him.
He wouldn't do anything to risk Lisa's life.
The only thing they could do was exactly what Suit told them to.
Still, Mason didn't have to take Kelly with him. When daylight came he could put her on a bus and send her far away.
He knew she would refuse to go.
They could have that talk after she got out of the shower.
Mason removed his clothes from his shopping bag and folded them. He wished he could stop by his apartment for more clothes, but that wasn't an option. Maybe he could buy some in the morning.
The shower stopped in the bathroom. At the same time, his cell phone beeped. Another text message.
He narrowed his eyes as he read it.
39°09'29.9902", -076°43'27.3799"
Mason felt silly, but he had no idea what it was.
“Hey, Kell,” he called. “Do you know what this is?”
He approached the bathroom, stopping just short of the door. She held out her hand for the phone.
“Could you hand me my clothes?” she asked.
He set the bag outside the door. He smirked as a creamy arm reached out and grabbed it. He heard her getting dressed, and entertained himself with a nice picture in his head of what that event might look like.
She laughed, and stepped out of the bathroom wearing the clothes she had on at the beginning of the day. She waved his phone back and forth.
“These are Google Earth numbers,” she said. “Punch them into Google, it'll take you someplace. You didn't know that?”
He shrugged. “I'm not on the internet as much as I should be.”
She sat next to him. “Tomorrow we'll go to the library and see where it is.”
He shook his head. “I don't think we need to.”
“What do you mean?”
“Latitude and longitude are just as good as an address.” He held the phone up. “I'm guessing this will work fine for a mind slide.”
“Who sent you this?”
“I have a guess.”
He took a deep breath and circled around to the nightstand. Kelly stood up with him. He tried stations on the alarm radio, but nothing came through clearly.
“Dammit.”
“You're gonna mind slide? Right now?”
“Yeah. Obviously he wants me to see something.”
“Okay. Can I help?”
Mason looked around the room. He had mind slid before without music, but it always helped to hear a soothing orchestra.
“I think you can. Would you hold my hand?”
He laid down on the bed. She laid next to him, facing him, and rested her head on her hand.
“Of course I will. But why?”
“During a mind slide, it's easy to get sick. I listen to music to help my nerves. But nothing will work better for my nerves than having you next to me.”
She smiled and leaned over him. She gave him a kiss, letting her lips linger for a moment.
“You say the sweetest things.”
He flashed her a smile, then shifted for a moment and settled in. She laid her head next to him and stared at his profile. She let her hand fall on his.
“Okay, away we go.”
The hotel room slid away. The only thing he was aware of was Kelly's hand on his.
*****
Mason looked around at his surroundings while waiting fo
r his other senses to catch up. He was in the middle of a clearing, surrounded by trees. Crickets chirped, animals ran through the bushes. There was a slight breeze. The only light came from the moon.
He took a nervous breath. It felt like he was sixteen all over again, looking for Kelly in the woods.
“Mason, are you okay?” Kelly said. “You look like you're in pain.”
He still felt her hand. It was comforting to know she was next to him.
“Yeah, I'm fine. Just a bad memory.”
He almost heard Doc's voice in his head.
Be aware, Mason.
He looked at the ground. Most of the grass had been worn away. There were tire tracks everywhere.
He turned to see a brick building. It was two stories high, with bars on every window. There were three steps leading to a door. Bushes were starting to grow out of control, almost blocking the way to the door.
He walked up the stairs and stepped through the front door. It was very dark, but enough light spilled in from the windows to let him see.
He stepped into what looked like a lobby. Stairs led to the second floor. A desk with a computer sat in front of a set of double doors. There was a small layer of dust on everything.
He walked through the double doors. His jaw dropped, and he almost felt sick.
The setting was all too familiar.
There were desks everywhere. Charts and whiteboards were on the walls. File cabinets were littered about. There was a refrigerator in the far corner. Mason could guess what it used to store.
In the center of the room was a metal table.
He was in a lab, very similar to the one he spent much of his life in.
The only difference was the cell-like structure that took up the entire far wall. There was a bed, toilet, sink, TV, a dresser and nightstand, bookshelf, and a small couch. The bars looked thick enough to hold an elephant. The cell door had a series of four locks.
“Mason,” Kelly said. He felt a hand on his forehead. “You don't look so good.”
“I'm okay, Kell. Just seeing something I never thought I'd see again.”
There was a new voice.
“Can you hear me?”
Mason spun in the direction of the voice. Standing in the corner, with his arms crossed, was Gabriel. He had a smirk on his face.
“You can hear me, can't you? Wow. You can't tell me this isn't some crazy shit.”
Gabriel walked toward Mason. He glided his hand through a desk as he did so.
Mason was stunned.
Not only could they both see each other, they could communicate.
“Okay, wise-ass,” Gabriel said. “You want to tell me how we're doing this?”
Mason studied Gabriel for a moment. He'd only seen him twice before. He wore dirty bluejeans with holes and a black sleeveless shirt. Were they the clothes he was actually wearing, wherever his body was?
“I don't know,” Mason said. “Telepathy? I haven't exactly met a lot of other people that can do what we do.”
“Who are you talking to,” Kelly said.
“Hold on,” he told her. “Just give me a minute.”
Gabriel laughed. “Is that the redheaded chick? Tell her I said hello.”
Mason ignored him. He looked around once again at the lab. He started to get a clearer picture of some of the missing pieces of the mess they were in.
“I had my lab. I guess this was yours.”
Gabriel extended his arms and spun around. “Welcome to my home for the past five years.”
“Where are we?”
“We are in the middle of nowhere in the woods between Maryland and Virginia. You graduated from lab class when you were eighteen, and they wanted to see if they could make someone just like you. I'll be honest, I didn't even know you existed until a few weeks ago. I always thought I was the first.”
Gabriel reached out to grab Mason's arm. His hand pressed into the muscle and bone, like he was simply another object. Mason shouted and jumped back.
“Hey!”
“Just wanted to see if I could touch you. Come on, you're not excited about any of this?”
“Oh, yeah. Overjoyed.”
Gabriel rubbed his hands together and looked around the lab.
“This brings back a lot of memories. Annie, my favorite little adulterer, used to cook up that Cocktail crap in the corner over there. Doctor Rierson would sit right here, at this desk, and feed me all that nonsense about being aware.”
“What's with the cage apartment over there?”
“I'm very dangerous, Mason. I didn't used to be. I was a normal guy. I came home from work one day...early, you see. My wife was in our bedroom having sex with her three boyfriends. So, I calmly went into the kitchen, grabbed a knife, and butchered every single one of them. You'd do the same, wouldn't you?”
Mason knew Gabriel couldn't harm him, but he was still nervous. Gabriel was fine for the first few minutes of their talk, but it seemed like he was becoming unstable, very quickly.
“Anyway,” he continued. “Suit plucked me out of prison. He said if I volunteered for an important project, he could get my sentence reduced. Maybe even acquitted. If they told me they'd be ripping my head open, I would have stayed in prison.”
“Suit told me you were addicted to the Cocktail.”
Gabriel laughed. “Addicted? Oh yeah, I'm addicted to feeling like shit and knowing I may puke when we get done our little pow-wow here.”
Mason took a breath, ready to ask the most important question there was.
“Why did you kill Doctor Rierson?”
Gabriel raised an eyebrow. “You don't have any idea of what's really happening, do you? You're just running around, chasing your own tail.”
“We're actually running for our lives.”
“Eh, well, not from me. Would it make you feel any better if I told you I didn't kill Doctor Rierson?”
Mason rolled his eyes. “Oh, let me guess. Suit did it, right?”
“Nope, not him either.”
Mason said nothing. Gabriel saw the confusion on his face, and simply laughed.
He jumped up in the air and hovered. He flew around the lab in a circle, then next to his old cell, running his hand through the bars. Mason felt guilty, seeing that flying looked so much fun. Gabriel was far better at it than he was.
“You ready to have your mind blown?”
He landed across from the metal table. Mason wondered if it was the same metal table he spent so much time on.
“Doctor Albert really got killed by a drunk driver.”
Mason opened his mouth, but no words came out for a moment. “I...don't believe you.”
Gabriel jumped above the table and sat with his legs crossed, hovering just an inch above the surface.
“Mason, my friend. Doctor Albert is the one who let me out of that cage.”
“Who killed my father?” Kelly said. He felt her squeezing his hand. “Who are you talking to? What is he saying?”
“Hold on, Kell. Please.”
“Aww, Kell,” Gabriel mocked. “Isn't that cute?”
“Doc wouldn't do that,” Mason said. “If you're so dangerous, he wouldn't have let you out.”
“We both know Rierson was a good man. He started feeling guilty. He couldn't stand what he and his fellow doctors were doing to me. So, he let me out on the condition that I go underground, and never be heard from again. I told him I would, of course, but that was a lie. I really did kill every doctor who ever touched me, except for Rierson. He was supposed to go underground, too, and I would have left him alone. But that drunk driver hit him, and he died.”
“You're crying,” Kelly said. Mason felt her finger trace his cheek. “What's wrong?”
Mason took a deep breath. He wished he could talk to Kelly without Gabriel hearing, but that would have to wait.
“You're a murderer,” Mason said. “Why should I believe anything you say?”
“Hey, believe whatever you want. I don't care. Murderer? I guess I
am. But I did save your cop friend's life. He would have died on his kitchen floor if I didn't make the call.”
“Thank you,” Mason whispered quietly. “What do you want with the flash drive?”
Gabriel's eyes went wide. “Ah, and here is where you're gonna have to make a choice. I think you'll figure it out when I give you a clue. You ready? Rierson, he destroyed everything. All the data, I'm guessing all the way back to you. He wiped out all his little fancy servers, his file cabinets, his formula, even the backups. Shit, I've got the last case of Cocktail, besides whatever you have. There is no more. But he put everything on that flash drive.”
Mason lowered his head. “Suit would kill to get that back.”
“Exactly. He wants it to keep the project going. I want it, to destroy it. The world isn't ready for people like us, Mason. And no one should have their brains messed with the way they did ours.”
Mason was conflicted. Gabriel had killed so many people. He admitted it. Mason remembered the names of every doctor he ever worked with. Did Gabriel kill them all?
Was Gabriel being honest?
He spoke of making a choice.
The only choice that mattered was the one that saved Lisa's life.
“I'm supposed to give Suit the flash drive tomorrow night, in exchange for Lisa.”
“Ah, the cop's wife? Listen. If you do, he'll find someone else to jolt electricity and feed drugs into. And to be honest, he might not just let you walk away. No witnesses, and all that crap. I don't think he'd kill you, because you'll always have value. But your girlfriend, your cop friend and his wife, even their daughter, Dani. They're expendable.”
Mason looked up. It bothered him that Gabriel knew Dani's name.
“Look, I don't have a choice. I can't let them hurt her. I know where she is, but she's guarded in a building. Suit's men are all hanging out there, I'm sure with a lot of guns. It's not like I can just walk in-”
He stopped. Gabriel waited for him to continue. When he didn't, Gabriel spun around in the air.
Mason let the idea roll through his mind. The more he thought about it, the more it sounded like a good idea.
Could it really be that simple?
Mind Slide Page 21