Throwing a forearm across my eyes, I stumbled back into the lounge, slamming the door shut.
With my head bent, I mastered the pain. Looking around in full sunlight without my sunglasses had been foolish. I knew better. I took a deep breath and slowly exhaled. I did it again and sought for calm.
Something bumped against a chair, a knee maybe. I raised the Browning, aiming at the noise.
“Please don’t shoot me,” Kay said.
“Sit down,” I said.
I heard the rustle of fabric and remembered how Kay used to brush her hands behind her dress, behind her thighs, as she sat in a chair.
I opened my eyes. The purple color had drained from the spots in my vision. Those were blank areas now. The lounge—my sight filled in everything else around the spots. I tilted my head. Kay sat in a chair, with a small microwave-sized box beside her feet. She kept her feet pressed together and she wore dark slip-on shoes. I noticed they were heelless.
“Why are you here?” I asked, with my Browning aimed at her.
Her features were tight as she rubbed her left shoulder. She had long red hair and freckles across the bridge of her nose. Mascara tried to hide the darkness under her eyes. She was unable to conceal their puffiness.
“What’s wrong?” I asked. “Why aren’t you talking?”
She tested her left wrist, gingerly moving the fingers. “You nearly tore my arm out,” she said. “You shouldn’t have been able to do that.”
I stepped away from the door so if anyone blew it down she would be in the line of fire. I had to start thinking.
Kay was five-five and still slender as a model in her yellow sundress. She had to be in her upper thirties by now. Despite the wear of years, she was still pretty. Her legs were the best part, tanned, trim and smooth. The rest was too bony, highlighted by sharp cheekbones.
It didn’t look as if she carried any concealed weapons. Maybe she had a gun in the red purse on the box. Maybe she had a detonator in the purse and the box was a bomb, but I doubted it. As far as I knew, they wanted me alive. Besides, Kay didn’t seem hypnotized, drugged or nervous in a suicidal way. I’d dealt with suicide bombers in Afghanistan. If you knew what to look for, a bomber was easy to spot.
“Do I pass inspection?” Kay asked.
“Did the Chief send you?”
“What?” she asked. “No.”
“How did you find me?”
“Do you have to keep pointing that gun at me? I’m unarmed. I came here because I need your help.”
The box could contain tracking gear, unerringly guiding commandos to me. It was the size of a small microwave, with folded brown cardboard sides and loops of tape wrapping it. The tape was the clear type people used in a Post Office. It looked like it had been taped in a hurry, but that might have been done to give Kay a story.
She crossed her legs and sat back in the chair, watching me, with her gaze darting now and again to the Browning. Those were nice legs. My best friend Dave used to run his hands over them when we went to the beaches of Monte Carlo together. In those days, I’d been in Security. Well, I had been in Security after a fashion. That had all been before the accident that had changed me into what I am now.
“Maybe this is asking too much,” she said, “but how about a drink?”
I shifted onto the balls of my feet. A dash down the stairway to the sleeping quarters and I could have my special sunglasses. Then I’d sprint out the door and try to disappear again. Several things gave me pause. One, it was near noon, the worst time for me to be outside. Two, Kay had found me. I wanted to know how. Three, it had been a long time since I’d spoken to someone from my old life other than the few phone calls to Cloud.
I tried to thumb the safety. The handle of my gun now showed the imprints of my squeezing fingers from a few seconds ago. With a grunt, I forced the safety with my thumb, and it clicked into place. I’d need a new gun soon, but I wasn’t going to worry about it this instant. I slid the Browning between the bands of my shorts so the gun was cold against my skin. Three steps brought me to the wet bar where I checked the bottles. Smirnoff on the rocks minus the cubes, I remembered.
With a tentative smile, Kay accepted the glass. Her hand shook as she sipped. “I know you’re surprised to see me,” she said. “I debated a long time before coming here. Just to let you know and to put you at ease, I don’t work for the Shop anymore.”
“You’re on the run like me?” I asked, surprised. If they had discovered she’d let me out of their cage, I’d assumed they would put a bullet between her eyes. I remember urging her to come away with me that night.
“I left,” Kay said. “I walked away from the Shop.”
“Do you know how many people have wished they could do that?” I asked. “Now tell me something true.”
“It is the truth,” she said. “There was a change in policy three years ago. It came from the highest levels. Doctor Cheng, Doctor Harris and the others, they were released. So were those who… who tested them.”
“There’s a nice word,” I said. “Tested.”
“Those were bad times,” she said, looking down as if ashamed.
“Kay, why are you here? This doesn’t make sense. If you don’t start answering quickly, I’m going to assume you’re stalling and the Chief’s men are on the way. In case you’re wondering, I’ll do anything to keep out of their hands. I’m never going back.”
She grew pale as I talked. “It was a bad time, and they did evil things. They did the worst experiments on you.”
“Why? Why did they pick on me?”
She stared at me.
“Kay,” I said.
She gave a little start. Was she drugged? “You…you were a soldier. The others were scientists.”
“Try again,” I said. “It’s harder to find people who could do what I once did than finding more scientists.”
“You weren’t always this cocky,” Kay said.
“Quit evading the question,” I said.
Her gaze slid away from mine. “The Chief,” she said quietly, “he feared you more than the others and therefore he considered you expendable.”
That sounded about right.
“Gavin,” she said, speaking louder, “I don’t have much time.”
“Before we go into that, I want to know how you found me. Who else knows I’m here?”
“It wasn’t the Shop,” she said. “So you don’t have to worry about them.”
“Just spit it out,” I said.
“Doctor Harris, he found you.”
“What? How? And why would Harris be looking for me?”
Kay uncrossed her legs and set the glass beside her purse on the box. With her hands folded, she leaned toward me. She gave me an earnest look, and it might have been genuine.
“About a year after you escaped, there was a change of policy at the highest level. The Chief had done something to anger very important people. I think there was a review concerning Cheng, Harris and the others, and there was pressure from the American State Department.”
“You expect me to believe that?” I asked.
“The Americans put new safeguards in place,” Kay said. “It was a political thing. Cheng went to work for Polarity Magnetics soon after.”
“What’s that?”
“The name of a research company linked to the Pentagon.”
“What does Polarity Magnetics have to do with me?”
“Will you let me finish? Quit being so paranoid.”