“Harden? It’s Ash.”
“Hallelujah, it worked!”
“Thought you were trying to get my attention. What’s going on?”
Harden related the conversation he’d had with someone called Director Johnson, and his doubts that she’d believed his story.
“A woman?” Ash asked.
“Yeah.”
Ash thought it had to be the same Director Johnson they had overheard speaking with the Dutchman named van Assen, the same woman they suspected was part of the new Project Eden directorate.
“Just giving you the heads-up.”
“I appreciate it. Go up top and let base know we might have visitors.”
“Okay. Oh, Captain, one more thing. I found our missing security guard.”
“You did?”
“She tried to get in here a few minutes ago, but I scared her off.”
“Where is she now?”
“Watched her climb up through the hut and run off toward town.”
“Did she have a radio?” Ash asked.
“No radio that I saw, but she is armed.”
“All right. Thanks.” Ash hung up and flipped on his comm. “Listen up, everyone. There’s a good chance our presence is now known to those outside the base, so we need to pick up the pace. Let’s get this floor cleared in the next five minutes.”
Sandra returned as Ash stepped out into the hallway.
“How many have we found so far?” he asked.
“There were four others in the holding room. And I saw someone heading there with two more as I left. Seven so far, it looks like.”
“Good,” he said. “I need to talk to Chloe, so I’d like it if you could hook up with one of the other groups until I get back.”
“Um, sure,” she said, and then hesitated as if she wanted to say more.
“What is it?” he asked.
“I thought I, um, recognized some of the patients.”
“You probably did.”
“They’re not dying, are they?”
“That’s the last thing the Project would want.” He put a hand on her shoulder. “You going to be all right?”
A nod first, then, “Yeah. Sure. I’ll be okay.”
“Good, then we’ve got work to do.”
He gave her his best reassuring smile and took off for the elevator.
Robert and Estella moved quickly through the room, looking for anyone from Project Eden, but those in the hospital beds were the only ones there. This was the fourth room they’d checked, each basically the same, only the number of beds and the faces of those lying in them changed.
He could tell seeing so many unconscious people was taking its toll on Estella. Her face was drawn and her eyes wet.
After they cleared the room, he said, “Let’s move on to the next.”
She nodded without saying anything. She’d been silent during the last three rooms.
He took her hand and gently squeezed. For a moment she acted like she didn’t even realize he was there, and then she leaned against him as if suddenly exhausted.
As they reentered the hallway, they heard Renee say, “There you are.” She ran to them, worry in her eyes. “I need you to come with me.”
“What is it?” he asked.
“Something’s wrong with Chloe.”
Renee led them to the open area at the center of the floor, then took one of the other halls back toward the outside. A quarter of the way down, she stopped in front of one of the rooms.
“She’s in there.”
“Is she hurt?” he asked.
“No. Well, I don’t know. She’s been acting kind of strange. Quiet. Distant. And then when we went in here, she just stopped.”
“Stopped what?” Estella asked.
Renee shrugged. “Everything.”
Robert opened the door and stepped inside.
This room was different from the hospital-like wards they’d been searching, both in size and content. It was about the size of a manager’s office back at the Isabella Island Resort, and instead of a hospital bed, there was something that looked very much like a dentist’s chair in the center, but one considerably more advanced than any Robert had ever seen. Surrounding it were adjustable lights and instrument trays. Along the walls were cabinets and several pieces of equipment Robert couldn’t identify.
The one thing he expected to find was missing.
“Where is she?” he asked.
Renee and Estella rushed in.
“But…she was right there,” Renee said, pointing at a spot next to one of the instrument trays.
“Doing what?” Estella asked.
“Just staring at the chair. I tried to talk to her, but it was like I wasn’t even here.”
“How long have you been gone?” he asked.
“Two minutes at the most.”
“Maybe she started searching again,” Estella said.
“Well, she couldn’t have gone far,” Robert said. “I’ll go toward the perimeter corridor. You two go toward the center. If you find her, call me on the radio. Just say you need to see me for a moment. I don’t want everyone getting worried.”
As Robert worked his way to the outer rim, he made quick checks at every room he passed, discovering more wards filled with occupied beds, but no Chloe.
When he reached the outer hallway, he found himself near the elevator area they were using as a meeting point to bring captured Project members. Kayoko Hannigan, another Isabella Island survivor, was leaning against the wall, waiting for the next prisoner to arrive.
“Have you seen Chloe?” Robert asked as he jogged over to her.
“She was just here.” Kayoko nodded toward the elevator. “She headed up.”
“Did she say where?”
“Nah. She didn’t say anything. Looked like she was in a hurry, though. I assumed she was going to scout the next floor.”
Robert ran over to the elevators. The indicators showed one car was on eight and the other all the way up at five.
Perhaps Chloe had gone to check in with the other group. As he thought this, the indicator for the car on eight switched to the number nine.
Robert took a step away from the door, anticipating Chloe’s return.
But when it opened, it wasn’t Chloe who exited.
“Captain Ash,” Robert said, surprised.
“I need to talk to Chloe,” Ash said. “Do you know if she’s nearby?”
Robert glanced at the other elevator indicator, still displaying the number five.
“No, sir. I don’t think she is.”
14
The past that had been trickling back to Chloe soon turned into a flood.
The cracks had started even before she’d entered Dream Sky, when she realized this wasn’t her first time here. But it was the chair in the ninth-level procedure room that had busted the dam.
In a flash she saw herself as a child, growing up in a loving home. She’d been an honor student at her high school and in the top five percent of her class at MIT, where she earned a master’s in engineering. How had she forgotten that?
A boy had been her downfall. His name…Adam Lester, that was it. He was in her same major but was also part of something else, something outside the university. A secret project, he’d told her, something that would change the world.
Yes, it was all coming back now. All the bad choices.
The room on the ninth level only looked like the one she’d been in. Hers was on five. Without thinking twice, she headed quickly to the outer loop, entered an empty elevator, and pushed the number five.
“Come, just one meeting,” Adam had cajoled her. “You’ll see what I mean.”
She had almost skipped out when she was told she’d have to sign a nondisclosure form before she’d even heard a single word, but there was Adam again, drawing her in and getting her to put pen to paper.