Discarding all caution, Duncan raced forward to the door.
"Oh, ! " The word clogged in his throat, shutting off his air. He couldn't breathe.
A pale, disheveled woman in a swearer and sweatpants, with wild-looking dark hair, stood at the counter, the vial of TPD in her hand. She looked up. Her wide, shocked eyes spit dark fire at him.
He found his voice. "Gin! " As she raised her arm to hurl the vial at him, Duncan lunged for her, catching her arm before she completed the motion. She screamed, scratching his face with her nails and beating at him with her free hand as he tried to pry the vial from her fingers.
Lord, she was strong, like an angry tigress, but he fended her off and finally managed to get the vial away from her. And then she attacked him with both hands, screeching incoherently through her clenched teeth. She was a banshee, a female berserker. Was this what the TPD had done to her?
And then she broke away from him and darted toward the door. He caught her arm and swung her around against the counter, then slammed the door closed and leaned his back against it.
He faced her, staring at her as she stared at him, both panting.
"You bastard! " she screamed, as tears started in her eyes. "You rotten filthy son of a bitch! How could you do that to . . .
me? With that, she folded her arms on the counter, lowered her head onto them, and began to sob.
Duncan was dumbfounded. She seemed sane now. Upset, yes, but completely rational. But the implant . . . the TPD. Could the transducer have failed to dissolve it?
That had to be it. Low power, interference, whatever the reason, the ultrasound had failed.
Good Lord. What did he do now?
One thing was certain, He needed time to think. He turned to the door, found the lock, and twisted it. If nothing else that would slow her up if she tried to, He cried out as a cold, sharp stab of pain pierced The back of his thigh. He clutched at the spot and turned.
Gin stood directly behind him, facing him, the trocar clutched in her hand like a dagger.
Duncan's blood froze. He snatched the trocar from her.
"No! You didn't! Gin, you didn't " She nodded slowly, her eyes wild, a slow smile spreading across her face.
Over her shoulder Duncan spotted a tray on the counter with three implants and a syringe. He touched the back of his leg again and checked his lingers.
Blood.
His sick fear was overcome by a flash of anger. But as he stepped toward Gin she raised her other hand. Her fingers were wrapped around the transducer handle of the tabletop ultrasound Oliver used in his experiments on the membranes.
Duncan slammed himself back against the door.
"No, Gin! " He'd wanted to shout the words but they came out in a hoarse whisper. "Please . . . don't! " "Why not? " she said, still smiling crazily.
The wild look in her eyes terrified him to the very core of his being.
She was teetering on the edge. One wrong word, one wrong move, and she'd slip completely out of control.
"Why trot? " she repeated. "You wanted to do it to me." '"No, Gin.
That was the last thing I wanted. I had no choice. I, " "Spare me the lies! " she said, jabbing the transducer at him. "I passed out last night because I was sick and scared and weak. But you thought it was the TPD hitting my system. You tried to fry my brain last night, Duncan. And you came damn close. If my fingertip hadn't happened to brush against that second implant while I was digging out the first, I'd be in the lockup ward at D. C. General right now. As it was, I came to and got out of my apartment just before the ambulance arrived.
" "That should be proof that I didn't want to harm you. I called that ambulance." '"Right. After you gave me an ultrasonic zap." She moved closer and Duncan edged away to his right. He didn't dare make a grab for the handle. Her thumb was on the power button. A little pressure on that and the implant in his leg would dissolve, after which his mind would quickly follow suit. He had to keep her talking.
"You don't understand, " he said, continuing to edge away. "Oliver told me you'd removed both. I only came, " '"Oliver didn't know that!
He only saw the one in the bottle, the second one. The first one fell into the tub and - broke and washed down the drain." , , He kept moving, inches at a time He would have loved to put the counter between them, but she was following his every move, waving that transducer at him.
"Gin . . . " "How could you do that to me, Duncan? How could you try to ruin my life like that? You might as well have put a gun to my head. I trusted you, Duncan! " His heart started hammering as he saw the fury begin to mount in her eyes. He looked around for a weapon, a way out, anything, but he was trapped. He'd have to stop backing away and go after her, have to risk grappling with her.
- And then he spotted his salvation, not two feet away. He averted his eyes. Couldn't let her see him looking at it. If he could reach it before she blew . . .
"And I trusted you, Gin, " he said, hoping to buy some time if he could put her on the defensive. "I gave you a job, gave you the keys to my building, and what did you do? You picked the lock on my desk drawer and invaded my privacy." The anger in her eyes receded, but only a short way.
'"How did you find that out? " He was close now, almost within easy reach. If he could get his hand up . . .
"You left a piece of your lock pick behind." He raised his right hand with the thumb and index finger an eighth of an inch apart. "Just a tiny, " He darted his hand to the right, grabbed the power cord to the ultrasound unit, and yanked it from the wall, leaving Gin holding an inert piece of metal. Duncan slumped against the counter. Lord, that had been close He held out his hand. "Give it to me, Gin. It's useless now."
"Don't count on it! " She reared back and threw it at his face.
Duncan twisted away and ducked, but not in time to avoid it completely.
The transducer handle thudded painfully against his skull. By the time he straightened, shook off the pain, and looked around, Gin had unlocked the door and was pulling it open. She was out and gone before he could grab her.
Ignoring the pain in his leg, Duncan gave chase, limping after her as she headed for the stairs.
Gin gasped for breath as she pounded up the steps. She'd taken the rest of the antibiotic she got from Oliver, but she was still sick, still weak. She wasn't going to outdistance Duncan for long.
She reached the first floor and broke into a run down the hall, Right into the arms of three men in suits.
"What the hell's going on here? " said the tall, dark one in the middle, as the one to his right, the one she'd bumped into, grabbed her upper arm and held it. His fingers felt like steel. She might as well have been manacled to him.
'"Agent Decker! " said Duncan's voice behind her. "Thank God you came early! I found this young woman here when I arrived. Apparently she broke in sometime during the night." He held up the trocar. "She just stabbed me with this." She twisted around and saw Duncan standing in the doorway to the basement, panting.
"I just did to him what he was going to do to the president today.
"Whoa, " said the-tall, dark one Duncan had called Agent Decker. "Hang on there, ma'am, " '"She's deranged, ' Duncan said, moving closer.
"She's had a complete break with reality."
"That's not true! " Gin cried. "I work here! I'm a doctor. And he's planning to kill the president today." That was an overstatement, but she needed to get their attention. And now she had it.
'"Yes, she used to work here, Agent Decker, " Duncan said quickly.
"We've noticed erratic behavior lately and we've been trying to arrange psychiatric help. Unfortunately, she decompensated before we were able to finalize those arrangements.