“Shh.” His lips tightened. “That’s what I should be asking you. You were out longer than you should have been from that shot those gorillas gave you. It was beginning to worry me. It was too much to hope that they knew what they were doing. If they’d overdosed, they could have killed you.”
The truck. The two men running toward her, the smothering black hood. “Well, evidently they didn’t do that.” She tried to sit up, but another wave of dizziness swept over her. “Bathroom,” she gasped. “I have to throw up.” She struggled to get to her feet.
“It’s across the lab.” Charles was beside her, holding her as he hurried her across the room. “Damn, I knew they’d screw up the injection.”
She’d reached the bathroom, and she slammed the door and headed for the toilet. When she’d finished, she splashed water in her face, grabbed the glass on the vanity, and rinsed her mouth.
“Kendra. Open this door. I’m a doctor, for God’s sake. Are you okay?”
She opened the door. “No, but better. Still dizzy.” She was weaving her way back across the lab toward the cot. He slipped his arm around her waist until she reached the cot and he got her settled. She closed her eyes for an instant. “Do you know what they gave me?”
“Yes. Pentobarbital. Ted Dyle gave me a blow-by-blow description of how they intended to take you.” His lips curled bitterly. “He wanted to make sure I knew how helpless I was to stop anything he chose to do. That’s been his latest game plan.” He added harshly, “I was praying that he wouldn’t be able to pull it off. You’re so damn smart, you had to know there would be a threat to you. I knew there wasn’t a chance that you wouldn’t be searching for me. I was just hoping that you’d realize you’d have to watch out for yourself.”
“You’re right, there wasn’t one single chance in the universe I wouldn’t try to find you.” She shook her head to clear it and looked around. She’d been aware they were in a lab of some sort. Now she saw that it was a large laboratory, with long worktables containing test tubes, incubators, instruments, and other equipment. A desk with a computer occupied the far wall. No other furniture except the cot on which she was lying. “And I do watch out for myself.” Her gaze was still scanning her surroundings. “Dyle didn’t give you very luxurious quarters, did he?”
“He considered the cot a luxury. He didn’t want me to do anything but work.”
“Do you know if this room is bugged?”
“It’s not. I checked it when I first got here. No reason. Dyle wanted me to perform, demonstrate, step by step. He wanted to film and document so that it could be repeated.” He grimaced. “And I guarantee he knew that the formulas I’d created were too complicated for me to mutter them in my sleep.”
She nodded. “Okay, then I guess we’re safe to talk here.” She looked at the teak door closest to them. “How long do you think they’ll leave us alone?”
“I have no idea. You’ve been unconscious for hours, much longer than they expected. One of the guards came in ten minutes ago to check on you.” His lips twisted. “And Dyle might want me to sit here for a while and worry a bit about you. A softening process. That’s what this is all about, you know. Nothing else has worked for him, so he thinks that I might cave if he uses some of his charming methods on you.” His hand tightened on hers. “God, I didn’t want you here.”
“But here I am.” She tried to smile. “And Dyle is a fool if he believes that you’d give up all you’ve worked for to keep me safe. You’ve always known what’s important and how to balance that against the risks you had to take.”
“And you’re just another risk?” He shook his head. “I might have a problem with this particular risk. And Dyle knows it. He knew that night I let you slip away from the program in Monterrey. Why do you think that I didn’t contact you for all those years? You were a potential weapon he could use against me. I’ve known for years that Night Watch could become a monster.” His gaze was holding her own. “But, Kendra, the potential. It could also become a God that could save lives. I could see it shining and, with every advance I made, it became stronger, brighter. I couldn’t let it go.”
“I know you couldn’t. No one would want you to give it up.” She smiled. “Miracles, Charles.”
“Which are now being hijacked by the monster. And you may be one of the victims.”
“Then we have to make certain the hijack doesn’t come off. Which means that we have to get you out of this place. That’s why I had to be here.”
“What?” He was gazing at her with horror. “Shit. Don’t tell me that you deliberately let yourself be taken. I don’t want to hear it.”
“You will hear it. You’d been gone too long, and it was getting increasingly dangerous for you. Biers said that you could be killed and were probably being tortured. We had to get you out.”
“Biers? You talked to Biers? When?”
“Yesterday. Jessie Mercado finally located him. He’d been in hiding since he reached California and found Shaw was dead.”
“He’s safe? I thought he might be dead, too. Dyle kept telling me how he’d gotten rid of all the scientists on the project except me. It was another way to isolate me.”
“He’s safe. Jessie stashed him in her apartment. After he told us what was going on with Night Watch… and you. He said he could only make guesses, but he assumed that you might still be alive since you were the linchpin of the project.” She gazed searchingly at him. “He also thought you were probably being… hurt.” She lifted her hand and touched his cut lip. “He was right?”
“That was just a little initiation to show me possibilities.” He made a face. “Dyle got much more innovative after the first session. He got someone who knew about the chemical injections used on prisoners in Iran. Extremely painful, like pure fire in the veins and able to be repeated frequently without danger of heart attack or brain damage. Dyle particularly didn’t want to risk brain damage.”
“My God. How could you stand it?”
“Oh, I was a complete coward.” He smiled wryly. “No stalwart Navy-SEAL attitude for me. I’m a scientist, for God’s sake. They had me crying like a baby.”
“But you didn’t give in to him.”
“Maybe I got used to it.”
“Yeah, sure.” She repeated softly, “Coward? And you wouldn’t have told him what he wanted to know no matter what he did to you.”
“Well, it helped that I thought that after he got what he wanted, he’d kill me anyway. You’re making me out to be some kind of hero.” He smiled faintly. “You always made that mistake. I’m only a man who has a skill and sometimes a dream. I’m flawed in so many ways. I’m driven, and sometimes I can be ruthless. I’ve never been able to maintain relationships unless they were connected to my work. I’m a workaholic, and I expect everyone around me to be as-”
“I always knew you were no hero,” she interrupted. “I wasn’t that blind. But I learned who and what you were, and that was always enough for me. And I’m learning more all the time, so stop treating me as if I’m a gullible child. Yes, I came because I owe you. But I also came because you’re one of the good guys. There aren’t that many left in the world. We have to make sure that they don’t become extinct. So stop lecturing me on why I shouldn’t have come to help you, and let’s think of a way to do it. You said you don’t know how much time we have.”
He was silent; and then he nodded. “Point taken.” Another pause. “And if you decided to bust me out of this place, I trust you have a plan or assistance?”
“I thought I had.” Now that the haziness was dissipating, she realized that she was experiencing a dull throbbing ache in her left side. Not good. There had been no pain after the first few hours when Jessie had inserted the device. She shifted and pulled her shirt out of her pants.