The goon sitting on Ryan got up, allowing him to pull himself to a sitting position. Ryan used one hand to keep himself from falling over and, as he leveraged himself to his feet, stumbled several steps before regaining his balance.
The two goons ignored him, working together to load Tess into the back seat of the limo.
Ryan turned to Flynn. “Are you taking her to the center?”
“Hardly,” Flynn scoffed. “After this fiasco I have no desire to have Tess involved with anyone at the Bloom Research Facility. We’ll be leaving on my private jet shortly. She’ll return to the facility she was in before I had the misfortune to think anyone in Half Moon, Iowa, would know anything that would be of any help to Tess.”
“What facility are you taking her to?”
Flynn laughed. “Nice try, Doctor.” He bent down to climb into the limo, but then he stopped and straightened up. His gray eyes were cold mirrors of ill-concealed rage. “Don’t make the mistake, Doctor, of thinking that your concern and your misguided loyalty to Tess will be tolerated. If you try to find her, I will press harassment charges.” He turned away, adding, “If I’m not mistaken, legal difficulties of that nature could result in one having their license revoked.”
Ryan stepped closer. “Don’t threaten me, Flynn. It will be a cold day in hell before I forget what happened here today. Plan on looking over your shoulder and finding me standing there.”
“A shame,” Flynn said. “A man should know when his career is about to tank.” He climbed into the limo and slammed the door.
Ryan moved around to the other side. Bloom had the door open, giving final instructions to Chief Cole. Most likely something about making sure that Ryan didn’t try to follow the limo. He bent down and checked on Tess.
She lay between the two orderlies, her hair in disarray, several strands caught between her lips. Her eyelashes were dark spikes across the paleness of her cheek, and she lay with her legs drawn up and her fists clenched in front of her, as if she’d simply quit in the middle of a fierce battle.
Even after the ordeal she’d been through, she looked beautiful and defenseless. Vulnerable. Ryan’s heart tightened.
Bloom stepped in front, blocking his view. “Leave it alone, Ryan.”
“I can’t leave it alone,” Ryan said, incredulous that his former mentor would even consider asking him to do such a thing. “Any way you look at this, it’s wrong.”
“Not according to the authorities,” Bloom said. “You tried to help her, and now her father is taking over.”
Ryan stepped closer. “Something’s wrong with that guy, Sid. Don’t let him take her. Let me at least call a few friends, check things out. I’m getting really bad vibes here.”
Bloom waved a hand dismissively. “You’re too emotionally involved with this woman to see things clearly.” He climbed into the back of the limo. “Perhaps your behavior today explains what happened in Boston. I advise you to get your act together before you find yourself looking for another job.”
The door slammed and the limo shot down the driveway. A few seconds later, it roared off.
“So not only have you gotten yourself beat up, you’ve alienated your boss. Not bad for a single day’s work,” Cole remarked.
Ryan stared after the limo. “You’re not much of a lawman, Cole, if you’d stand by and let a bunch of thugs man-handle a woman like that.”
Cole climbed into his car. “Still trying to push buttons, huh, Doc?”
“I thought you wanted Tess down at the station for questioning.”
“Oh, I know where to find her if I need to talk to her.” He tipped his hat back on his head. “Now don’t you be thinking about following that limo, Doc. I’ll be trailing behind it to the airport and if I see that fancy little sports car of yours anywhere near it I’ll be running your ass in.” He started his car’s engine and leaned an arm out the window. “We understand each other?”
“I understand the sad fact that they’ve bought you off.”
“Man’s gotta make a living, Doc. But you didn’t hear that from me.” He put his car in Reverse and backed slowly down the driveway. He waved as he took off in the same direction as the limo.
Ryan glanced down at himself. He was covered with grass and dirt. He swiped a hand across his mouth, coming away with blood.
He needed to clean up and get out to the center. If he couldn’t follow Tess, he could at least start making calls, finding out where her father was taking her. He still had a few contacts that would help him out.
Tracking Tess down wasn’t going to be easy, but Ryan had no intention of leaving her in the hands of the man who treated her so brutally.
AFTER SHOWERING and dressing, Ryan ran to his car and slid into the front seat. He slipped his cell phone into its carrier and backed out of the driveway. As he jammed the shift into Drive, he dialed the center.
He paused at the end of the driveway, punched in the extension for the hematology lab and waited.
He heard the click of the transfer and a few seconds later an impatient voice snapped, “If you people don’t quit bothering me, I won’t get anything done down here.”
Relief washed over Ryan. His friend, Craig Freedman, the head of the hematology lab was exactly who he wanted to talk to. “You sound a little stressed, Craig.” He forced a touch of humor into his voice.
“Donovan,” Freedman growled, his tone warming a millimeter. “Damn clerk called in sick again, and they didn’t send me a sub. I’ll be stuck answering the phone all day, and to add to the indignity, people keep sending me stupid lab requests on inadequate drops of blood. What the hell do you want?”
“The results on a stupid lab request, of course.”
Freedman grunted. “What’s the name?”
“Doe. Tess Doe.”
“Hang on and I’ll see if it’s done.” Ryan could hear the man’s fingers fly over the keys of his computer as he searched the file. “Got it. A BCC, Tox screen and drug panel, right?”
“That’s the one. Anything of interest show up?”
“Actually, yes. Your little lost lamb had a snootful of what you shrinks used to call a sleep cocktail.”
“Thorazine?”
“Yep. In addition to Nembutal, Seconal, Phenergan and Veronal.”
Ryan whistled through his teeth. “I didn’t think anyone was using that particular combination anymore. Not since the sixties anyway.”
“Well, either you’ve got a Rip Van Winkle doc treating this patient or someone who didn’t attend the lecture in med school that talked about the unethical use of certain drug concoctions.”
“Did you find anything else?”
“That’s not enough for you?”
“Come on, Craig. What else did you find?”
Craig sniffed. “Good thing your patient holds a certain fascination for me. I ran a couple of other tests to see what I’d find and, lo and behold, I actually found something.”
“What?”
“You’ve got me.”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“Exactly what I said. I have no idea what I found. She’s got some kind of new chemical compound swimming around in her bloodstream. An unknown. It’s got some similarities to Thorazine, but it’s a total hybrid. In other words, a new drug.”
Ryan gripped the wheel tighter. “You’re sure?”
“Of course I’m sure,” Craig snapped.
“Send me up a copy of the findings, all right?”
“They’re on their way to your office as we speak. You’ll find them on your desk as soon as you get your hide in here.”
He wrapped the conversation up a few minutes later and replaced the phone in its cradle. He sat back, a sense of unease niggling at the back of his neck.
An unknown compound. A new drug.
Something was definitely going on and he wanted to know what.
THE ROOM WAS STERILE WHITE. A combination of glaring white walls and steel, a dazzling white-tiled floor and stark, whitewashed furniture with shiny steel knobs and hinges.
General Flynn clasped his hands behind his back and settled into a comfortable parade rest. Staring through the stretch of glass that separated the control room from the examination room, he considered the form stretched out on the stainless-steel table in the middle of the room.
Tess lay on her back, her arms and legs secured to the table with leather fleece-lined cuffs. She was dressed in a pair of thin green hospital pants and a white tank top.
A strap across her forehead kept her head from moving from side to side. Not that it was necessary at the moment as she was unconscious and totally limp. A pair of high-tech headphones were clamped over her ears, sealing out all noise from the room.
Flynn knew that a preprogrammed tape was being filtered through the headphones-a tape with his voice on it. He knew the prerecorded message was telling Tess what he expected of her. A job to be carried out in less than a week.
So little time. So much to accomplish.
A technician, dressed in a white lab coat, stood near the head of the table and Flynn watched as the woman efficiently injected the end of a needle into a small glass vial and drew up a liquid. When she withdrew the needle, she used one bright-red-tipped finger to flick the barrel of the syringe, eliminating any air bubbles.
Turning, she swabbed an alcohol pad over the rubber stopper on the IV tubing connected to Tess’s arm. She removed the cap on the syringe and then stuck the needle into the rubber diaphragm of the IV tubing, pushing in the plunger.
The medication slid effortlessly into Tess’s body.
“You’re sure she’s totally unaware of anything going on around her?” Flynn asked, not bothering to turn around.
“Yes,” Bloom said from somewhere behind him. “I find that she responds best to your voice when she’s in a deep trance. If she’s in a light sleep, she fights too much.”
Flynn glanced at the TV monitor mounted over the glass. It framed a close-up of Tess’s face. Her skin was startlingly pale. She hadn’t gotten much sun these past six months, not when she’d been locked up deep within the top-secret basement of the center.
She was indeed beautiful. Untouched almost. Flynn understood well Ryan Donovan’s desire to be her champion. But the young doctor had no idea what he’d stumbled into, and if the good doctor didn’t watch out, he wouldn’t be stumbling into anything ever again. He’d be dead.
It was a good thing that Bloom seemed to be somewhat in control of the young man’s curiosity. Flynn had a strong feeling that in any other situation, Donovan would be someone to be reckoned with. Thankfully, the low-level researcher had no knowledge or access to this part of the research facility.
Flynn turned back toward Bloom. The doctor stood over the shoulder of a technician who was monitoring one of the computers giving him a readout on Tess’s physiological reactions to the medication.
“What happens if she’s not ready in time?” Flynn asked.
“She’ll be ready,” Bloom said, not bothering to look up. “I’ve already planted the trigger word in her memory. A few more sessions and I’ll be able to reintroduce the memories we had to wipe clean earlier.”
“And if she’s not ready? What then?”
There was no missing the flicker of impatience that slid across Bloom’s face. But Flynn had to give the man credit. Before lifting his head, he carefully composed his face. “We’ll do what we always said we’d do. We’ll use McCaffrey. He’s her backup.”
“That has the potential to cause more problems at this late date. He doesn’t have the connections with Starling that Tess has.”
“No, but we planned for that possibility. McCaffrey is on the guest list as Tess’s date for the reception. He’ll have the access he needs should Tess not be able to fulfill her duty for whatever reason. We agreed from the start that Tess could get the closest, but that McCaffrey was our ace in the hole.”
The technician interrupted by pointing to the monitor. Bloom nodded and reached down and flicked a switch. “Marsha, give her another five cc’s please.”
The nurse inside the examination room nodded and drew up the medication, injecting it into the IV tubing.
Flynn turned halfway around and studied his stepdaughter’s body strapped to the examination table. “Is it safe to increase her dosage like that? I mean, she’s been without the drug for an entire day and then some.”
Bloom ignored him and reached over the technician’s shoulder to tap the tip of his pen against the monitor screen. “Run a comparison on that reading with her initial EEG.” He straightened up and glanced at Flynn. This time he made no effort to hide his irritation at another interruption. “Perhaps, General, you’d prefer to wait in your suite. I’m a tad busy at the moment. I’ll meet you later to give you a rundown on the results from this reprogramming session.”
Flynn nodded. He wasn’t stupid, he knew when he was being dismissed. Medicine was definitely not his area of expertise, and he didn’t want to slow things down even more by asking mundane questions. “I’ll be awaiting your report.”
As he left the room, Flynn overheard Bloom ordering another increase in Tess’s loading dose. He could only hope that Bloom was as good as everyone said he was. Starling and his crew of renegades needed a wake-up call they’d never forget and if things went the way Flynn wanted them to, Tess Ross would deliver that message in a way that no one would ever forget.
UNDER THE CLOSE SCRUTINY of the stone-faced armed security guard positioned at the inner gate leading to the Half Moon Research Center, Ryan swiped his ID badge through the security box next to the guard hut.
The light on the box changed from red to green.
The gate swung open. “Have a nice day, Dr. Donovan,” the guard in the booth said.
Ryan nodded and released the brake, giving the car a little gas. As he drove through and headed for lot A, the guard’s attention had shifted to the computer in front of him. His fingers flew across the keypad. Ryan knew the man was recording his car license plate and arrival time. He also knew that his entry was already being flashed ahead to the security team within the facility.
When he had first arrived at the center, Ryan had been somewhat amused at the high level of security. Although Bloom had mentioned they did handle some military projects on occasion, Ryan had gotten the impression that they were usually low-level projects, nothing that required this degree of precaution.
Ahead, the glass and steel structure of the Bloom Research Center loomed among a grove of lush trees, winding walkways and carefully tended gardens. As he passed the small driveway leading to Dr. Bloom’s private entrance, he noticed the back end of a black car jutting out from behind the thick hedge hiding Dr. Bloom’s parking lot and private entrance. Could it be? Was it possible that it was the same car they’d loaded an unconscious Tess into less than an hour ago?
He slowed, craning his neck to get a better view.
If it was the same limo, what was it doing here? It meant that Bloom and Flynn had lied. No big surprise there, but it was hardly what Ryan had expected. It meant that Tess had been brought to the center in spite of Flynn’s assertion that he was taking her back East to another hospital.
He clicked on his signal and turned into lot A. Not many of the slots were filled yet. Bloom had told him that July was vacation month. A lot of people were out of town.
Exiting the coolness of the air-conditioned car, he locked up and walked the short distance to the canopied entrance of the center. By the time he reached the door, the humid morning air had caused his shirt to stick to the middle of his back.
Ryan inserted his badge into the slot in the door handle. A few seconds later, the door clicked and he stepped into the main lobby.
He walked across the slate floor to the receptionist’s desk. To the right stood a luxurious cluster of butter-soft couches and chairs. Ryan knew they were butter-soft because he’d sunk into one when he’d visited the center a little more than two months ago.
He’d sat there for forty minutes until Bloom showed up to escort him inside the center for his tour. He hadn’t realized then, but he wasn’t allowed to just wander around the research facility. Someone was always at his side during that initial phase. Now they tracked him like all the employees-through his identity badge.
“Good morning, Pam,” he greeted to the young woman seated behind the receptionist’s desk. Ryan had a sneaking suspicion that even Pam was a highly paid, thoroughly trained security guard.
“Good morning, Dr. Donovan. Warm enough for you?” She flashed him a pleasant, totally professional smile and pushed a small black box across the countertop toward him.
“Too warm to be in a suit and tie, if that answers your question.” Ryan hefted his briefcase up onto the gray-and-white-flecked granite countertop and pressed his thumb to the electronic print pad.
He drummed his fingers on the aluminum of his briefcase while he waited for the computer to run a check on his thumbprint.
Pam tilted her head and then nodded. “You’re clear to go in, Doctor.”
Ryan grinned. “You’re positive I’m not an impostor?”
Pam smiled politely back, but it had an almost remote, chilliness to it. Apparently joking about security issues wasn’t on the research staff’s list of approved conversations.
“Have a nice day, sir.” She returned her attention to the computer screen in front of her. Ryan knew he’d been dismissed.
He turned to leave and then paused, remembering the limo parked in Dr. Bloom’s private lot. “Is General Flynn still here or has he left for the airport? He seemed interested in some research data I mentioned to him yesterday.”
For a nanosecond, Pam’s fingers froze over her keyboard. But then she glanced up, her eyes innocently questioning. “General Flynn? I’m sorry, I’m not aware of anyone with that name registered as a guest here at the center.” Her fingers flew over the keys again. “But let me check for you.” She paused a moment and then shook her head. “No-no one by that name here at the center.”
Ryan shrugged. “Guess I was wrong.”
She nodded. “Yes, it would appear so.” She waited. “Was there anything else I could do for you, Doctor?”
“No, that’s all. Thank you.”
He turned and walked through the steel door leading to the offices. His nerve endings tingled. Flynn was in the building. And if Flynn was in the center, then so was Tess.