Triggered Response Read online

  “But who is the enemy? Everyone? That chemical isn’t going to distinguish between terrorists and women and their children.”

  “War doesn’t distinguish—” Gage suddenly looked up as if he’d realized how upset she was becoming. “Sorry. I don’t agree with any of this, but I was in combat too long to be surprised by anything.”

  “What they were trying to do and what actually happened… Something went wrong with the experiment. Bray needs to know about this. Maybe the information will kick-start some buried memory.”

  “Go tell him. I’ll see what else I can find.”

  Sick inside, Claire went in search of Bray. Starting out cautiously, she hurried once she decided the corridors were clear. Then a low whistle made her practically jump out of her skin.

  “Claire, over here!”

  For a moment she thought she was seeing things, but no, that was her best friend standing at the end of the corridor, signaling to her. Her pulse began to speed through her veins and her throat grew tight. Her thoughts jumbled, she rushed toward Mac.

  What was he doing here? How did he even get into the building without a security clearance?

  Unless he had a security clearance…

  “Oh, Mac, I’m so glad to see you.” She didn’t want to think about what his presence meant.

  “Let’s talk outside.”

  He inclined his head toward the door that led to the little nature preserve outside the lab wing. Though Claire had never seen anyone but an occasional gardener out there, she followed her friend who was already at the pond.

  “Mac, talk to me. Tell me what the hell is going on.”

  “Sorry, Claire. You really need to get out of here now.”

  “Why? What will happen if I don’t?”

  “You’ll end up like me.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  Was he intimating he was part of the cover-up? Or had he been another failed human test?

  “Just promise me you’ll go and you won’t look back. It’s for your own good.”

  “Mac, please!”

  Claire caught up to him and grabbed for his arm. Her hand cut right through air. She stared at him, at the handsome square-jawed, dark-eyed face she knew so well. The face she apparently didn’t know at all.

  “What the hell? What are you? Some kind of ghost?”

  “Close, Claire. Close.”

  And then he faded to nothing.

  Claire’s heart pounded. What was going on? Was Mac alive or wasn’t he? Was he able to project himself…

  A projection!

  The mastermind who’d projected a fake Gage to Echo had just done the same to her.

  Had it been Mac himself?

  She had to warn Bray!

  Whirling around, she stopped herself before she went flying into the pond. The moon shone down on the water, and she could swear she saw something moving beneath the water’s surface. Wanting to ignore it, wanting to go find Bray, she couldn’t make her legs work. Couldn’t take her eyes off the subtle waves in the water.

  Her heart thundered in her chest as got down on one knee and plunged a hand into the water.

  What the hell had she latched on to?

  Solid…and yet not… Definitely unnatural…

  She pulled out her hand and sat back, but the object drifted through the water up to her. Bloated fingers, flesh half-rotted off, class ring intact.

  Her class! Rather, the male version of the one Mac had given to her.

  The cry that escaped Claire echoed off the walls of the surrounding buildings. She’d finally gotten her wish, had finally found her best friend. He’d been right here, waiting for her to find him all along. Sobs broke from her and she turned away so she wouldn’t be sick all over what was left of the one person who’d always been there for her.

  It didn’t seem right that her heart could break twice in the same night.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Thinking to surprise Echo by showing up unannounced, Rand was the one surprised when he saw the woman he loved leaving the house with Lily Darnell.

  “Hey, what’s going on? Where’s Gage? Better yet, where are the two of you headed?”

  “Gage and Bray are at Cranesbrook,” Echo told him, her expression defiant. “They’re going to prove their innocence.”

  “And you were planning to do what? Help them?”

  “Yes,” both women said in unison.

  “What about Zoe?”

  “The sitter’s watching her.”

  Rand could see Echo had her back up. No doubt she assumed he was going to try to stop them. It took every ounce of strength not to act on that as instinct bade him. Echo was set on this. And Lily.

  “I assume you two have a plan.”

  Lily said, “We were going to figure that out on the way there.”

  “Save me from impulsive women.”

  “You weren’t saying that last night,” Echo reminded him. “And you promised me you would help clear my brother’s name. It’s time for you to stand up to your word, Rand. This is your chance.”

  Rand still wasn’t sure Sloane was innocent even though Echo had told him about the security DVD being doctored. He’d already heard about Hank Riddell’s murder and the fact that the locals caught Sloane red-handed. The last had seemed too convenient to him, though, especially since they’d been acting on an anonymous tip. He’d promised Echo he would try to clear her brother, and he feared that if he didn’t come through with the goods this time, he would lose her forever.

  “All right. I’ll go, you stay.”

  “We’re not waiting around, stewing until someone remembers to call us,” Lily said.

  Obviously the women were united in this. “Okay, how about you help me get into the place?”

  Thinking he couldn’t successfully play the cop card with security again, not on a Saturday night, Rand quickly explained his plan.

  “Deal?” he ended.

  Echo and Lily looked at each other and then at him. “Deal,” they said in unison.

  Then they all climbed into Echo’s car and headed for Cranesbrook.

  When they were just far enough away so they couldn’t be seen by the security guard in the gatehouse, Rand got out of the car, and as agreed, punctured a tire. Air hissed out and he could see the car slowly settling down toward the pavement. He tapped the hood, slid back along the tree line and made his way toward the entrance.

  Echo waited just long enough for him to get into position before putting the car in gear and rolling within spitting distance of the entrance gate. The car was tilted toward the collapsed tire, the difficulty obvious to anyone.

  Echo stopped, and she and Lily both got out and walked over to check out the tire.

  “It’s flat, all right,” Lily said, her words quavering. “Do you know how to change it?”

  “Change a tire? Are you kidding?”

  “What are we going to do now?”

  Echo looked around as if panicked, then marched up to the guard house. The moment she engaged the guard’s attention, Rand started moving closer.

  “Excuse me, sir,” Echo said, sounding pitiful, “but we need help. Flat tire.”

  “So call your service.”

  “I don’t have a service.”

  “Then call a friend.”

  “No phone, and there’s no one to call anyway. My brother isn’t even available to help me tonight.”

  “We really have no one to save us but you,” Lily said.

  The guard didn’t seem moved. He was being more difficult than Rand had imagined. He cursed silently as he waited for his opportunity to move in.

  “I can call a tow truck for you,” the guard offered.

  Echo said, “I can’t afford the fee. I just got that junker out of the shop and I’m broke.”

  “Same here,” Lily said. “Can’t you please help us? It’ll only take a few minutes to change a tire, right?”

  “Leave my station? I don’t know.”

  “But we’re r
ight here in front of the entrance,” Lily insisted. “No one can get through that gate without you seeing.”

  “Please?” Echo begged, her voice sounding choked.

  What a performance, Rand thought, getting ready to move as he saw her magic finally work on the security guard. He hadn’t been sure Echo really could do helpless, but she was magnificent.

  “All right,” the guard said, leaving the gatehouse at last.

  Rand waited until the man passed his hiding spot, then made his move. As Echo and Lily kept the guy’s focus on them, he crossed the drive and slipped through the gatehouse and onto the grounds. The women hadn’t liked being left out of the rest of the action, but they’d agreed it was more important for him to get inside Cranesbrook. Once the tire was changed, they would drive out of the guard’s sight and wait for Rand’s call.

  He only hoped he wouldn’t have cause to regret anything that happened tonight. The Feds were bound to be mightily displeased. This could bounce back on him professionally.

  Worse, if he couldn’t clear Brayden Sloane of any wrongdoing, he feared Echo would never be able to forgive him.

  BRAY HAD GOTTEN what he could out of the new lab. The other night he’d gotten nothing from the old one. He decided to check out the storeroom in Lab 12 next.

  Walking down the long corridor, he wondered what Claire and Gage had found. Whatever it was, it must be good to keep them both glued to the computer for so long.

  He still couldn’t believe Claire hadn’t gotten out while the going was good. She must really love this Mac Ellroy. His throat constricted just thinking about it. About what she’d come to mean to him in such a short time. About what he didn’t mean to her. He’d been nothing more than a damaged source of information.

  Claire was stuck on a mystery man who apparently was alive and around, after all. And if Mac Ellroy proved to be part of the cover-up, Claire would be broken-hearted.

  He was starting to think like a love-sick fool, Bray decided, shoving such thoughts into the back recesses of his mind as he entered Lab 12.

  The area looked innocent enough. No evidence of a man having died there the day before. Had Riddell killed Artur or had he simply found the janitor après heart attack? Weird though, that the janitor had so conveniently died in a supposedly empty lab that was the hiding place for vials of chemicals.

  Entering the storeroom, Bray searched the lower shelf behind the cleaning products. Whatever Claire had found there was gone now.

  “Damn!”

  He was about to get up when he spotted a small object on the floor. A cork like one that would top a test tube. Hesitating only a moment, he reached out and snatched it from the floor.

  Touching the cork threw his brain into overdrive. He saw a man in a white lab coat pouring colored liquid from several vials into the metal bowl atop a black box. The next thing he knew, the scientist had set off the liquid and was breathing in the fumes.

  His brain is on fire…

  Bray grabbed his head.

  HIS BRAIN is burning. Melting. And yet he’s awake. He’s inside, but the sun is blazing down on him. And the heat…the heat is becoming unbearable.

  The sound of fire from an MP-5 whips him around, out of the storeroom and into the mountainous desert. What he sees there makes him nearly jump out of his skin.

  “Why didn’t you save me?” Taureen Morgan asks, his mouth a hole in a tight dark face that suddenly explodes into pink mist.

  BRAY TRIED FIGHTING it, but he was losing. He was being thrown back to the Afghanistan conflict.

  The enemy is everywhere…and this time he doesn’t know if he can get out alive.

  GRIEF GAVE WAY to cold fury. Claire wiped her eyes and got to her feet.

  “I’ll never forget you, Mac. And I won’t let whoever killed you go free, I swear.”

  She said a quick prayer for his soul and then went to make good on her promise. When she arrived at the entrance to the corridor, the door was locked. That had been the bastard’s motive, she assumed. Separate and conquer.

  Running back to the pond, she picked up a rock and then approached one of the big lab windows. She hurled the rock as hard as she could. The tempered glass splintered, cracks spreading to encompass every inch. Then slowly the window bowed and began to cave in. The glass collapsed in balletic slow motion.

  Claire removed her new suit jacket and used one of the sleeves to wipe down the bottom of the window frame and the ledge inside. Then she draped the jacket over the frame bottom and climbed into the lab.

  She looked around for a weapon, but the best she could come up with was a fire extinguisher. Grabbing it off the wall, she left the lab only to stop dead when she came face to face with Dr. Martin Kelso.

  Claire’s heart began to thud. “Dr. Kelso…”

  Would he try to make her see something that wasn’t really there again?

  His expression darkened. “Explain yourself, Ms. Fanshaw. Why are you here and what do you plan to do with that?” He gave the fire extinguisher in her hands an accusing glare.

  “I’m here because of Project Cypress, Dr. Kelso, but I’m sure you already know that. As for the fire extinguisher…”

  Before he could use his powers on her again, she launched the heavy metal missile at him. The fire extinguisher smacked him in the chest and head. He went down hard, crumpling to the floor like any ordinary man.

  Strange noises shot along the corridor. From Lab 12? Bray! Claire ran.

  When she opened the lab door, she froze. Instead of a lab with tables, she faced red rock and a desert floor. The sun blazed so hot, it immediately parched her. She looked around wildly. Backed into a far corner, Bray was in full military mode. Positioned in a crouch, his blank gaze roaming, he held an invisible weapon.

  Kelso must have created the projection before getting back to her.

  Claire started to move toward Bray, meaning to snap him out of his nightmare, when the skin at the back of her neck crawled. She slowly turned and faced the truth dressed in a white lab coat: Nelson Ulrich was the one wielding the new power.

  Thinking fast, she used her own best weapon.

  “I should have known you were the one, Dr. Ulrich.” She said it with a hesitant smile, as though she were in awe of him. “You’re so brilliant, it had to be you, of course.”

  He seemed taken aback for a moment, then asked, “Did you and Ellroy have a good reunion, Claire?”

  Her stomach roiled at the reminder, but she kept her cool. This was the most difficult thing she’d ever done, but she moved smoothly toward him, an admiring smile still curving her lips as she asked, “How did you know about us?”

  “His e-mail. Before I took care of Riddell, he finally got into Ellroy’s e-mail for me. Imagine my surprise when I learned you were friends. How odd that you never said a thing about it.”

  “I’d wondered what happened to Mac, of course, but what I really wondered was how such a brilliant mind worked.”

  “I am brilliant,” Ulrich agreed.

  As she pulled the scientist’s attention to her, the projection grew weaker. Claire glanced at Bray, who seemed confused when he looked down at his empty hands. His attention shifted to the scientist, and slowly he got to his feet.

  He was coming out of it, Claire thought with relief.

  “If I had known what you were doing from the beginning, Dr. Ulrich, I would have been at your side. Powerful men are like an aphrodisiac to me.” She bit her lower lip and let a little moan escape her. “So talk dirty to me, tell me all about your creation.”

  The bastard grinned at her. He believed his own press!

  “We were experimenting on controlling the neural pathways, taking away aggression,” he told her. “That seemed to be working in our rats. But they refused to eat, started to die. The deadline was closing in, so when we modified the cocktail, we skipped the rats and went right to the monkeys. At first they were very sick, but they all came through it. And then I noticed a banana floating to one of the cages. The monkey
was making it come to him. That’s when I knew we had stumbled onto something far more valuable than we’d imagined.”

  “That must have been very satisfying for you.” She bit her lip again and smiled at him.

  He had to be thinking with something other than his brain, Claire realized, because the last of the projection dissipated. And judging from Bray’s dark expression aimed at the scientist, he’d shaken off the projection’s effects. Satisfied that this lie might have saved the life and mind of the man she loved, Claire backed away from Ulrich, who didn’t seem to notice as he kept on boasting.

  “I’ve never gotten the recognition I deserved. Not from the time I was a boy and threw myself into the one thing I was good at—science. My father punished me for being so weak. Now I’m the one doing the punishing.”

  Then Bray was on him, grabbing him by the front of his lab coat, lifting him as easily as if with telekinesis, when he was simply using his own brute strength.

  “I intend to clear my name, Ulrich, and hand you over to the authorities.”

  Ulrich said, “You’ll never have the chance, because you’re going to die like the rest of them!”

  Ulrich narrowed his eyes and Claire could feel the atmosphere in the room change. He was going to do it again. She tried not to panic.

  “Bray, don’t believe anything you see. Ulrich will plant lies in your mind. He’s the one with the power of projection.”

  “Bitch!” Ulrich screeched at her, and the atmosphere stabilized.

  As Bray threw Ulrich against a lab table in disgust, Claire heard a noise and turned to see Rand, gun drawn, standing in the doorway. Though the detective met her gaze, he didn’t announce himself. He slipped back just outside the door.

  “When did you get the bright idea of testing the chemicals on Gage and me?” Bray demanded.

  “We had to have proof that the experiment would work on humans before we could offer it to the highest bidder.”

  “You were going to sell out your country? You would have been tried as a traitor.”