Chapter Twelve
Jeremy led them not to an experimentation lab, but a conference room. Next to Kitty, Nick’s foreboding ratcheted up. He hated being surprised.
She agreed. Something was happening. But what?
If Fields only wanted to talk to them, he would have come to their cell. Kitty assumed he’d written her off, now that he had other subjects to study. And, to Fields, if Nick didn’t have any powers, he would only be an inconvenience, of no use to him.
She stayed close to Nick, though, not liking to be too far as she worried for him.
Had they discovered he was changed? Fear twisted her chest.
No. If they’d learned that Nick was changed, Fields would have taken him to an exam room. He would have definitely separated him from her. Fields would have never left them together. It would be too dangerous.
But taking them to a conference room fitted with a beverage table, complete with a wine decanter and water cooler? Cushy chairs? Not exactly what she’d expected. Definitely not a good sign.
Jeremy wasn’t thinking about why they were here. He’d been told to bring them to this place and that was good enough for him. He didn’t care what happened next. A complete lackey. Once again, she wondered what she’d ever seen in him.
Before they’d left their cell, the soldiers had zip-tied Nick’s and Kitty’s hands in front of them like handcuffs.They stood, flanked by soldiers like death row inmates, as the door on the far wall of the conference room opened.
Kitty shifted so her arm touched Nick’s. The small contact, knowing he was there beside her, comforted her. She reminded herself that they weren’t defenseless.
Fields stepped in, accompanied by two guards. Last to enter were two men in dark suits. Nick remarked silently that their garments had to be custom-made because they were both tall and covered in muscle. He possessed the same general body type, and he knew from experience that it was hard to find a suit that fit correctly. Yet these men’s jackets fit snug against their bodies, without pulling or bagging. A cut like that wasn’t cheap. And their shoes were real leather, of the highest quality.
These men stink like money, Nick thought.
She agreed.
Both were dark-skinned, with dark eyes and thick lashes, strong jaws and strong builds. Next to Fields’s soft belly and rounded shoulders, these men were the epitome of fitness and health. They exuded coiled violence.
What she found chilling, though, was that their minds were calm, focused on watching Fields, her, Nick. She’d never met people so undistracted. The tenor of their thoughts was exotic, guarded. Calculating.
These were very dangerous men.
One of them stepped forward, slightly in front of the other. He held his head high while the other man carried a briefcase and dropped his eyes, deferring authority to the first.
“Good evening, Miss Laughton and Mr. Degrassi.” Fields slapped a stack of paperwork on a table near the door, drawing Kitty’s attention. “I’d like to introduce you to Mr. Ahmed.”
The foreign man—the one in charge—found this common, stereotypical name amusing.
Kitty shook her head. “That’s not his name.”
“No?” Fields’s eyes widened, and he glanced at his companion. The other man’s expression didn’t change, but surprise tinged his thoughts. He hadn’t expected her to know that. “How interesting.”
Fields stepped in front of Kitty, studying her. She didn’t cower. She’d come a long way from the girl he’d taken, the girl who had been afraid of him. She might fear his actions, because he was a small man and small men did cowardly things. But she saw him more clearly, him and his delusions of grandeur. She pitied him.
He smiled at her, unperturbed. “Mr. Ahmed wants to see what you can do.”
“What I can do?” She snorted. “Why would I help you with anything?”
“Because.” Fields nodded to Jeremy. “If you don’t humor me, I’ll hurt your friend.”
She registered Jeremy’s intention a split second before he struck Nick with the butt of his gun. She only managed to stumble toward him before the attack happened. The blow landed between Nick’s shoulder blades. He dropped to his knees as she cried out, reaching for him.
Rough hands held her in check. She struggled against them, but she wasn’t strong enough to break free, to go to Nick. She watched as he writhed, trying to get to his feet.
She could feel his pain in her mind, and it hurt her worse than if they’d struck her.
Jeremy and another guard dragged Nick to a chair in the center of the room. He glared up at his former friend. Disgust filled his face. “You really are an asshole.”
Jeremy snarled and punched him in the face. Nick’s head whipped back, but he recovered quickly. Still holding Jeremy’s gaze, he spit blood on the floor.
“Stop!” Kitty’s scream rent the air as Jeremy lifted his hand again. Jeremy paused, smiling at her. Hatred coursed through her. How had she not seen him for what he was months ago?
Kitty found herself begging. “Please stop. I’ll help, as long as you leave him alone. What do you want me to do?”
I’m fine, baby. Don’t do this. He hated that she was trying to protect him. She ignored him.
Fields smiled. “Mr. Ahmed needs proof of your abilities. You only need to answer his questions.” He accompanied her to the chair next to Nick and helped her sit, as if he had escorted her to a dinner party, not to an interrogation. Then he motioned to Ahmed to go ahead.
Her stomach felt sick, and her fingers shook. Angry to find tears at the corners of her eyes, she wiped them on her shoulders and glared up at the man they were calling Mr. Ahmed.
“Good evening.” His voice was rich with an accent. “Thank you for meeting with us.”
She didn’t respond. It wasn’t like she’d had a choice.
“The good doctor insists that you can hear thoughts.” Leaning against the table in front of her, the man clasped his hands in front of him. “I wish to see proof of this talent.”
“I assumed.” She smirked at him. “What do you want to know?”
“Tell me more about what the doctor is thinking.”
Fine. She could do this all day. “Fields is eager to gain your approval. He’s excited that you’re here, and he is stupidly proud of the drug he’s created. He can’t imagine that you won’t be impressed by what I can do. He’s arrogant, believes this will satisfy you, and you will agree to a contract.”
She stopped talking, allowing this information to wash over her. This was one of Fields’s potential buyers. She turned to Fields. No, not one of his buyers. This was the buyer.
She focused on Ahmed, trying to fit him into the puzzle. “You are going to buy the drug.”
Ahmed’s thoughts remained cautious. “I am considering.”
“You? Not your company?”
Images of his company, of board meetings, and many other successful men, flickered in his thoughts. “No.”
“Mergers and acquisitions? Bonds? You are a successful businessman.”
He scowled. “It does not require mind-reading to see that I am wealthy.”
“No. I suppose not.” She studied him closer.
You’re brilliant. Find out what you can. Maybe it’s something we can use. Nick’s voice flickered in her mind, full of support. She nodded. When Kenny and Brian launched their escape, the more they knew for Martins, the better.
How? What information would help them the most?
“Did he tell you that the drug kills people? That even the last time they used it, two out of twelve died?” How much did this man know about the drug? Was Fields hiding information from him?
“He did.” There was no surprise. The drug wasn’t safe yet. They knew that. What was this man—Ahmed’s—intention, then, if he knew the drug was still volatile?
“This doesn’t bother you?”
“It does not.” Because the men who will take the drug are not afraid of death.
“The men who take it are not afraid of death,” she recited for Nick’s benefit. Images of guerrilla fighters, dressed in the garb of the desert, filled Ahmed’s mind. The sand stretched out from his thoughts, the memory of the heat.
The Middle East. Nick filled in. He hadn’t even needed to see Ahmed’s thoughts to guess.
She nodded, her pulse picking up. “You will give this drug to guerrilla fighters in the Middle East.” She didn’t know what faction. She wasn’t even sure Fields knew—or cared—which faction. This wasn’t about ideology; it was about cash.
Her assessment impressed Ahmed, but he remained skeptical, attempting to determine other possibilities. Kitty didn’t care about impressing him, though.
“You developed the drug with government funding,” she accused Fields. “You planned to sell the drug to our government when it was ready. You wanted to save lives.”
“Things change.” And people are stupid. Fucking Pike.
“Who’s Pike?” She asked the question to the room at large.
Nick met her eyes. In charge of this operation at Goldstone. He hired me.
“Pike changed?” she asked Fields, incredulous. “Goldstone abandoned you? All of you? Again?”
“Not abandoned.” Fields sneered at her. More like got caught. “Pike’s with the military.”The fool. All of them, fools. They don’t see the benefits of my research. But this man does. What I’ve done, what these men can do… He sees the value.
“Mr. Ahmed has agreed to hire the soldiers who remain. And, I’ve chosen an early retirement. On a beach somewhere, I think.” It’s only a matter of time before Sinclair distributes the drug, or gives it to the military… With Goldstone and Pike under such scrutiny, I’m running out of resources. The faster I sell, the better.
“He fears our military already has the drug. Or portions of it. He knows that soon, the price of it will drop.” Her insight was more for Nick than anyone else.
Interesting. Mr. Ahmed processed that information. Good thing the money doesn’t matter as much as the time.
She nudged her head toward Ahmed. “He’s more interested in getting the drug fast. He’ll pay more for it as long as he gets it soon,” she told Nick, though Fields, of course, heard.
As both men chewed on what she’d told them—Fields gleeful that the buyer would buy fast, Mr. Ahmed unfazed by the military having the information already—she and Nick worked through what this meant.
This was a disaster.
Fields was going to sell Solvimine to a terrorist. Fields had planned to use the drug to create super soldiers and save lives in the military. American lives. He’d run from Goldstone, to test the drug on her hometown, sure he could prove the drug’s usefulness. Nick said that Goldstone had reabsorbed him after seeing that the drug actually worked…to some extent. That’s how Nick had found her. He’d taken a job with Goldstone. She’d assumed they’d switched compounds because she and Nick had almost escaped, not because Goldstone had finally given up. This building felt abandoned, decrepit, and surely if they had more space, they would have separated her and Nick.
Why had the changed soldiers around them agreed to stay with Fields. Money? Had Goldstone given up on them, too?
Well, if Goldstone had cut Fields off again, she couldn’t help thinking that it was too little too late. Because the drug had been created, and Solvimine would be worth a fortune on the black market.
The government was closing in, yes. Pike had gone to the military. Who knew what they planned to do with the drug. Use it? Stop it?
All those concerns paled, though, against the most immediate problem.
If the drug went out of the country…if this man gave it to guerrilla fighters, men who didn’t care if they died…this could change the entire face of fighting in the Middle East, or anywhere else that rebels were outmanned but highly funded.
They couldn’t allow that to happen. Also, if Fields was a rogue operative and was feeling cornered, there was no telling what he would do.
“This does not prove anything, Dr. Fields,” Ahmed interrupted her thoughts.
That’s right. He was testing her. She’d gotten stuck in her head.
“She could be making the lucky guesses. While I have been here, I have seen men move things without touching them, and I have seen men with superhuman strength. But it is this talent, the ability to read thoughts, that I want.” Ahmed glared down his nose at her.
As she didn’t care to change his opinion, she remained silent.
“Ask her something that no one else would know.” Fields crossed his arms over his chest, smugness resonating off of him.
Mr. Ahmed’s brow dropped. He wanted to be rid of Fields entirely. He didn’t like him, and he didn’t want to deal with him. Kitty couldn’t blame him. But the prospect of a mind reader…
“My wife. Tell me about my wife.”
Suddenly, images of the man’s wife filled his mind—a pretty, dark-haired woman, with long slim legs. Naked, she splayed on a bed draped in fabric. But, while she smiled at him, her eyes held fear.
Kitty didn’t want to prove anything to him. She considered remaining silent, but Jeremy stepped behind Nick and raised his eyebrows in challenge.
“There’s a birthmark on your wife’s thigh, like a paw print,” Kitty finally said. She tapped above her left knee, on the inside. “Right here. And, she is afraid of you.”
The man who was calling himself Mr. Ahmed swept forward to slap her. But she had been training for moments like this. She heard his intention and tumbled sideways off the chair in time to dodge him, landing on her hands and knees. The position was awkward, with her hands still zip-tied together, but she struck out with her leg.
The move worked perfectly. Ahmed tripped over her foot and lost his balance, crashing to the side and landing on his hip with a grunt.
She scampered forward to stand and quickly balanced her weight between her feet. “Don’t touch me,” she hissed down at him.
Nick stood as well, his legs apart. His eyes were dark, his lips twisted into a snarl. He saw red. You touch her one time, and I’ll kill you, fucker, right here…
As she loomed over Ahmed, she wanted to kick him. His flank was exposed, and she could do it. The fury, the fire of it, raced through her. This man… He was not used to being bested and certainly not by a woman. He’d have hit her, after all. It would serve him right. Undoubtedly, if the fear in his wife’s eyes said anything, he deserved it.
She didn’t allow the impulse to master her, though. For one thing, she was severely outnumbered. In this closed room, she would have no chance of launching a successful offensive.
Most important, Nick would come to her rescue. As she met his eyes, it was there, the fierce protectiveness on his face. His huge body was tight, waiting.
If he stepped in, he would expose his talent to these people. Then, if they didn’t win the fight—and she had to assume they might not—they would take him away from her.
She couldn’t allow that to happen. She didn’t have much in this piece of hell, but she had Nick. She wouldn’t let them ruin that. So, she restrained herself.
As Ahmed stumbled to his feet, she braced herself, though. She might not want to start the fight, but she wouldn’t hesitate to defend herself, either.
She’d come a long way.
“Stop.” Fields’s voice cut in to the melee as hands circled her forearms and Jeremy’s fingers rested on his tranquilizer gun. “That’s enough.”
Mr. Ahmed recovered. He brushed at his jacket and straightened it, shifting the way his tie sat at his throat, and pulling at his sleeves. He stretched his neck, breathing deeply and forcing his mind to calm.
“Indeed, doctor. Indeed.” He and his assistant exchanged glares, but when Ahmed faced them again, he was composed. “That is sufficient, Dr. Fields. I will take the girl, the soldiers we’ve spoken of, and the drug. I will move the money tonight. The funds will be available tomorrow. We will arrange a transfer for tomorrow night, at dusk.”
Wait. The girl? Her? Fields was selling her to this predator?
She met Nick’s gaze, blood rushing in her ears, her heart speeding. They were going to send her away from him.
He stared at her. No. He can’t have her. She stays with me.
“Splendid.” It didn’t take mindreading to see Fields’s glee. “We will make arrangements.”
The group—Fields, Ahmed, his assistant, and the two guards—left the conference room the way they came, still discussing their sale, without any comment to the rest of them, as if they’d been dismissed or were just below their notice.
Jeremy nodded to the other four soldiers. She and Nick were pulled to their feet and yanked toward the door.
“Oh, thought I should mention,” Jeremy added as they started into the hall. “I had a nice conversation with your friend Kenny, Nick.” He opened and closed his fist, stretching his fingers. Kitty noticed the bruising on a few of the knuckles. “Him and your pal Brian, both… I figured you hadn’t come alone. It only took me a few days to figure out who you brought with you. It’s done.”
Blood roared in Kitty’s ears as their hope of escape evaporated. They’d lost Kenny. Their plans for rescue were gone.
As the disappointment crushed her, she gritted her teeth. The anger boiled up, pressed out her despair, and tightened her resolve.
They didn’t have Kenny, but they had themselves. It would have to be enough. Because she wasn’t going with Ahmed, or whatever his real name was. No way.
This was their chance. They were out of their cell. They needed to move.
In the corridor, she reached out to Nick. Freeze them. Freeze them now. Now, now, now.
She and Nick were suddenly standing in the middle of five statues.