CHAPTER TWENTY
It wouldn't take long, Eve calculated, for Peabody or Feeney to home in on her signal. She just needed time. And she had a feeling Reeanna would provide it. Some egos, like some people, fed on regular admiration. Reeanna fit on both levels.
"Did you work with Jess?"
"That amateur." Reeanna tossed her hair at the idea. "He's a piano player. Not that he doesn't have a certain talent for basic engineering, but he lacks vision – and guts," she added with a slow, feline smile. "Women are so much more courageous and more vicious than men, all in all. Don't you agree?"
"No. I think courage and viciousness have no gender."
"Well." Disappointed, Reeanna pursed her lips briefly. "In any case, I corresponded with him briefly a couple of years ago. We exchanged ideas, theories. The anonymity of underground E-services are handy. I enjoyed his pontificating and was able to flatter him into sharing some of his technical progress. But I was well ahead of him. Frankly, I never thought he'd get as far as he apparently has. Simple mood expanding, I imagine, with some direct suggestion." She cocked her head. "Close enough?"
"You went farther."
"Oh, leagues. Why don't you sit down, Eve? We'd both be more comfortable."
"I'm comfortable on my feet."
"As you like. But a few steps back, if you don't mind." She gestured with the stunner. "I wouldn't want you to try for your weapon. I'd have to use this, and I'd hate to lose such a good audience."
Eve took a step back. She thought of Roarke, several floors above. He wouldn't come down to seek her out. At least she didn't have that concern. If anything, he'd call down if he locked onto something. So he was safe, and she could stall.
"You're a medical doctor," Eve pointed out. "A psychiatrist. You've spent years studying to help the human condition. Why take lives, Reeanna, when you're trained to save them?"
"Branded at conception perhaps." She smiled. "Oh, you don't like that theory. You'd have used it to push your case, but you don't like it. You don't know where you came from, or from what." She saw Eve's eyes flicker and nodded, pleased. "I've studied all available data on Eve Dallas as soon as I learned Roarke was involved with you. I'm very attached to Roarke, once toyed with the idea of making our all-too-brief liaison into something more permanent."
"He dumped you?"
The smile froze as the insult hit target. "That's beneath you, such a petty female hit. No, he didn't. We simply drifted in opposite directions. I had intended to drift back, let's say, eventually. So I was intrigued when he took such an avid interest in a cop, of all things. Not his usual taste, certainly not his usual style. But you are… interesting. More so after I accessed data on you."
She made herself comfortable on the arm of the relaxation chair. The weapon stayed aimed and steady. "The young, abused child found in a Dallas alley. Broken, battered, confused. No memory of how she'd gotten there, who'd beat her, raped her, abandoned her. A blank. I found that fascinating. No past, no parents, no hint of what made her. I'm going to enjoy studying you."
"You won't get your hands in my head."
"Oh, but I will. You'll even suggest it yourself, once you take a trip or two on the unit I've made just for you. I really hate that I'm going to have to see to it that you forget everything we discuss here. You have such a keen mind, such a strong energy. But it will give us a chance to work together. As fond as I am of William, he's so… short-sighted."
"How involved is he?"
"He has no idea. The first test I ran on the doctored unit was on William. Quite a success, and it made things so much easier. I could direct him to adjust each unit I wanted. He's quicker, more adept electronically than I. He actually helped me refine the design and personalize the one I sent to Senator Pearly."
"Why?"
"Another test. He was very vocal about the misuse of subliminals. He enjoyed games, as I'm sure you've discovered, but he continually pushed for regulations. Censorship, if you ask me. He stuck his nose into pornography, consenting adult dual controls, commercial advertising and its use of suggestion, all manner of things. I thought of him as my sacrificial lamb."
"How did you gain access to his brain pattern?"
"William. He's very clever. It took him several weeks of intense work, but he managed to hack through security." She angled her head, enjoying the moment. "At the top level of NYPSD as well. He injected a virus there. Just to keep your EDD men occupied."
"And that's where you accessed my pattern."
"Indeed it is. He has a soft heart, my William, it would pain him horribly to know he had a vital part in coercion."
"But you used him, you made him part of it. And it doesn't pain you at all."
"No, it doesn't. William made it all possible. And if not him, there would have been another."
"He loves you. You can see it."
"Oh please." It made her laugh. "He's a puppy. All men are when it comes to an attractive female form. They simply sit up and beg. That's amusing, occasionally irritating, and always useful." Intrigued, she touched her tongue to her top lip. "Don't tell me you haven't used your basic female advantage on Roarke."
"We don't use each other."
"You're missing a simple advantage." But Reeanna flicked it away. "The esteemed Dr. Mira would label me a sociopath with violent tendencies and a driving need for control. A pathological liar with an unhealthy, even dangerous fascination with death."
Eve waited a beat. "And would you agree with that analysis, Dr. Ott?"
"Yes, indeed. My mother self-terminated when I was six. My father never got over it. He turned me over to my grandparents and wandered off to heal. I don't believe he ever did. But I saw my mother's face after she'd taken the lethal handful of pills. She looked quite beautiful and very happy. So why shouldn't death, taken, be an enjoyable experience."
"Try it," Eve suggested, "and see." Then she smiled. "I'll help you."
"One day, perhaps. After I've completed my study."
"We're laboratory rats then; not toys, not games, but experiments. Droids for dissecting."
"Yes. Young Drew. I regretted that because he was young and had potential. I'd consulted with him, rashly I see now, when William and I were working on the Olympus Resort. He fell in love with me. So young. I was flattered, and William's very tolerant of outside distractions."
"He just knew too much, so you sent him a modified unit and told him to hang himself."
"Basically. It wouldn't have been necessary, but he didn't want to let the relationship die. It meant he had to, before he lost that glaze infatuation puts over a man's eyes, and looked too closely."
"You stripped your victims," Eve added. "The final humiliation?"
"No." Reeanna appeared shocked and insulted by the idea. "Not at all. Basic symbolism. We're born naked, and naked we die. We complete the circle. Drew died happy. They all did. No suffering, no pain at all. Joy, in fact. I'm not a monster, Eve. I'm a scientist."
"No, you're a monster, Reeanna. And these days, society puts their monsters in a cage and keeps them there. You won't be happy in a cage."
"It won't happen. Jess will pay. You'll fight to put him there after my report tomorrow. And if you can't make the coercion charges stick, you'll always believe he was responsible. And when there are others, I'll be very select, very careful, and I'll see to it that each subject self-terminates well out of your range. You won't be bothered by it again."
"You arranged for two in my range." A sickness churned in her stomach. "To get my attention."
"In part. I did want to watch you at work. Watch you closely, step by step. Just to see if you were as good as reported. You detested Fitzhugh, and I thought why not do my new friend Eve a little favor? He was a pompous ass, an irritant to society, and a very poor game player. I wanted his death to be bloody. He preferred blood games, you know. I never met him in person, but matched with him in cyberspace now and again. A poor loser."
"He had family," Eve managed. "Like Pearly, Mathias, and Cerise Devane."
"Oh, life goes on." She waved a dismissing hand. "All will adjust. That's human nature. And as for Cerise, she was no more maternal than an alley cat. It was all ambition with her. She bored me senseless. The most entertainment she ever provided was dying on camera. What a smile. They all smiled. That was my little joke – and my gift to them. The final suggestion. Die, it's so beautiful, it's amusing, and so joyful. Die and experience the pleasure. They died experiencing the pleasure."
"They died with a frozen smile and a burn on the brain."
Reeanna's brows drew together. "What do you mean, a burn?"
Where the hell was her backup? How much longer could she stall? "You didn't know about that? Your little experiment has a slight defect, Reeanna. It burns a hole in the frontal lobe, leaves what we could call a shadow. Or a fingerprint. Your fingerprint."
"That's nothing." But she worried her lip as she considered it. "The intensity of the subliminal could cause that, I suppose. It has to get in, firmly, to bypass the instinctive resistance, the knee-jerk survival instinct. We'll have to work on that, see what can be adjusted." Annoyance shadowed her eyes. "William will have to do better. I don't like flaws."
"Your experiment's full of them. You have to control William to continue. How many times have you used the system on him, Reeanna? Would continued use expand that burn? I wonder what kind of damage it could cause."
"It can be fixed." She tapped the fingers of her free hand on her thigh, distracted. "He'll fix it. I'll do a new scan on him, study the flaw – if he has one. Repair it."
"Oh, he'll have one." Eve stepped closer, judging the distance, the risk. "They all had one. And if you can't repair William's, you'll probably have to terminate him. You couldn't risk that flaw becoming larger, causing uncontrolled behavior. Could you?"
"No. No. I'll look into this immediately. Tonight."
"It may already be too late."
Reeanna's eyes snapped back. "Adjustments can be made. Will be made. I haven't come this far, accomplished this much, to accept any sort of failure."
"And yet to succeed fully, you'll have to control me, and I won't make it easy."
"I already have your brain pattern," Reeanna reminded her. "I've already implemented your program. It's going to be very easy."
"I'll surprise you," Eve promised. "And Roarke. You can't manufacture without him, and he'll find out. Do you expect to control him as well?"
"That will be a particular pleasure. I did have to adjust the time schedule. I'd hoped to enjoy him first. A little trip, you might say, down memory lane. Roarke's so creative in bed. We haven't taken time to compare those notes, but I'm sure you'll agree."
It put Eve's teeth on edge, but she spoke coolly. "Using your toy for sexual gratification, Dr. Ott? How unscientific."
"And what fun. I'm not the master William is, but I do enjoy a good, creative game."
"And that's how you met all your victims."
"So far. Through the loops and the underground. Games can be relaxing and entertaining. And both William and I agreed that processing input from players would help us develop more creative options for the new VR." She fluffed at her hair. "Not that anyone had in mind what I was creating."
Her gaze shifted to the monitor, frowned over the data being transmitted from Roarke's office. He was processing the VR specs now, she noted. "But you've already got Roarke digging. Not just on young Drew, but on the unit itself. I wasn't happy about that, but there are always ways around inconveniences." Her smile tilted up at the comers. "Roarke isn't as necessary as you believe. Who do you suppose will own all of this if something happened to him?"
She laughed again, pure delight, as Eve stared blankly.
"Why, you will, darling. It will all be yours, in your control, and therefore mine. Don't worry, I won't let you stay a widow long. We'll find someone for you. I'll choose him personally."
Terror froze her blood, iced her muscles, closed frigidly around her heart. "You made a unit for him."
"Just completed this afternoon. I wonder if he's tested it yet? Roarke is so efficient, and so personally interested in all of his holdings."
She shot a stream at Eve's feet, anticipating her. "Don't. I'll just stun you, and this will take longer."
"I'll kill you with my own hands." Eve forced air in and out of her lungs, ordered herself to think. "I swear it."
***
In his office, Roarke frowned over the data he'd converted. Missing something, he thought. What am I missing?
He rubbed the strain out of his eyes, sat back. He needed a break, he decided. Clear the mind, rest the eyes. Picking up the VR unit on his desk, he turned it over in his hands.
***
"You won't chance it. If you do, and I stun you, you'll never get to him in time. There's always the hope you can stop it, save him." Her smile spread again, derisively. "You see, I understand you, Eve, perfectly."
"Do you?" Eve asked, and instead of lunging forward, leaped back. "Lights out," she shouted, snatching for her weapon as the room pitched into darkness. She felt the slight sting as Reeanna's aim wavered, skimmed her shoulder.
Then she was down, blocked by the desk, and gritting her teeth against the pain. She'd rolled fast, but not well, and had come down hard on her bad knee.
"I'm better at this than you," Eve said calmly. But the fingers in her right hand tingled and shook, forcing her to switch the weapon to her left. "You're the amateur here. Ditch the weapon, and I might not kill you."
"Kill me?" Reeanna's voice was a hiss. "You've got too much cop programmed into you. Maximum force only when all other methods fail."
Near the door, Eve told herself, holding her breath, training her ears. To the right of it. "There's no one here but you and me. Who's to know?"
"Too much conscience. Don't forget, I know you. I've been in your head. You wouldn't be able to live with it."
Moving closer to the door. That's it, keep going. Just a little more. Try to get out, you bitch, and I'll drop you like a piece of spoiled meat.
"Maybe you're right. Maybe I'll just cripple you." Weapon gripped, Eve bellied around the desk.
The door opened, but instead of Reeanna rushing out, William started in. "Reeanna, what are you doing in the dark?"
Even as Eve leaped to her feet, Reeanna's finger twitched on the weapon, sending William's nervous system jittering.
"Oh, William, for God's sake." It was disgust rather than distress. As he started to topple, Reeanna ducked under him and threw herself at Eve. Her nails scraped viciously across Eve's breasts as both women crashed to the floor.
She knew where to aim. She'd tended every bump and bruise on Eve's body and now battered at them, twisted, jabbed. A knee rammed against that tender hip, a balled fist slammed into the wrenched knee.
Blind with pain, Eve shot out an elbow, heard the satisfactory crunch of cartilage as it connected with Reeanna's nose. Reeanna screamed, a high, female sound, and dug in with her teeth.
"Bitch." Sinking to the same level, Eve grabbed a handful of hair and yanked. Then, slightly ashamed of the lapse, she jammed her weapon under Reeanna's chin. "Breathe too hard, and I'll put you out. Lights on."
She was panting, bloody, her body singing with pain. She hoped there would be satisfaction later at seeing her opponent's beautiful face bruised, smeared with blood that continued to stream out of her broken nose. But for now there was too much fear.
"I'm putting you out anyway."
"No, you won't." Reeanna's voice was steely calm, and her lips curved into a wide, brilliant smile. "I will," she said, and twisted the wrist of the weapon hand Eve pinned until the point rested against the side of her neck. "I hate cages." And smiling, she fired.
"Jesus, Jesus Christ." She scrambled up while Reeanna's body still shuddered, shoved William over, snatched out his pocket 'link. He was breathing, but she didn't much give a damn.
She started to run.
"Answer me, you answer me!" she shouted at the 'link as she fumbled it on. "Roarke," she ordered, "main office. Answer me, goddamn it." Then she bit back a scream as the transmission refused to go through.
Line currently in use. Please wait or retry momentarily.
"Bypass, you son of a bitch. How do you bypass with this thing?" She increased her pace to a limping gallop, not even aware she was weeping.
Footsteps pounded toward her in the breezeway, but she didn't even pause.
"Dallas, holy God."
"Back there." She raced past Feeney, barely heard his frantic questions through the roaring sea of terror in her head. "Back there. Peabody, with me. Hurry."
She hit the elevator, pounded on the call control. "Hurry, hurry."
"Dallas, what's happened?" Peabody touched her shoulder, was jerked off. "You're bleeding. Lieutenant, what's the status?"
"Roarke, oh God, oh God, please." Tears were streaming, scalding her, blinding her. Panic sweat flooded out of her pores, soaking her skin. "She's killing him. She's going to kill him."
In reaction, Peabody pulled her weapon as they rushed through the opening doors of the elevator. "Top floor, east wing," Eve shouted. "Now, now, now!" She all but threw the 'link at Peabody. "Get this fucker to bypass."
"It's damaged. It's been dropped or something. Who's got Roarke?"
"Reeanna. She's dead. Dead as Moses, but she's killing him." She couldn't breathe, couldn't. Her lungs wouldn't hold air. "We'll stop him. Whatever she told him to do to himself, we'll stop him." She turned wild eyes on Peabody. "She's not taking him."
"We'll stop him." Peabody was through the doors with her before they fully opened.
Eve was still faster, even injured, she gained speed through terror. She wrenched at the door, cursed security, and slammed her hand down on the palm plate.
She all but ran over him as he stepped to the threshold.
"Roarke." She burrowed into him, would have climbed inside him if she could. "Oh God. You're all right. You're alive."
"What's happened to you?" He tightened his grip on her as she shuddered.
But she was jerking back, grabbing his face in her hands, staring into his eyes. "Look at me. Did you use it? Did you test the VR unit?"
"No. Eve – "
"Peabody, drop if he moves wrong. Call the MTs. We're taking him in for a brain scan."
"The hell you are, but go ahead and call them, Peabody. She's going to the health center this time, if I have to knock her unconscious."
Eve stepped back, fighting for breath as she carefully measured him. She couldn't feel her legs, wondered why she could still stand upright. "You didn't use it."
"I said I didn't." He pushed a hand through his hair. "It's aimed at me this time, is it? I should have seen it." He turned away, glanced over his shoulder as Eve lifted her weapon. "Oh, put that damn thing down. I'm not suicidal. I'm pissed. She slipped it right by me. It just started to click five minutes ago. Mindoc. Mind doctor," he elaborated. "That's the name she used in her game playing. She's still using it, still playing. Mathias had dozens of transmissions to her in the year before he died. And I took a close look at the data report on the unit. The one they just gave me, and the stats from the files. They hadn't buried those deeply enough."
"She knew you'd find it. That's why she – " Eve broke off, sucked in air that she could hear whistle eerily in her swimming head. "That's why she personalized a unit for you."
"I might have gotten around to testing it if I hadn't been interrupted." He thought of Mavis, nearly smiled. "I doubt Ree put much effort into altering data. She knew I trusted her and William."
"It wasn't William – not voluntarily."
He only nodded, looked at her ruined shirt, the bright red splashes. "Did she bloody you?"
"It's mostly hers." She hoped. "She didn't want to be taken in." Eve blew out a breath. "She's dead, Roarke. Self-terminated. I couldn't stop her. Maybe I didn't want to. She told me – the unit, your unit." Her breath was wheezing again, hitching, skipping. "I thought – I didn't think I'd be in time. I couldn't make the 'link work, and I couldn't get here."
She didn't hear Peabody close the door to give her privacy. She didn't care about privacy. She only continued to stare, blind now, and shudder. "I couldn't," she said again. "I stalled her, all that time I was stalling her, building my case, and you could have been – "
"Eve." He came to her, gathered her close. "I'm not. And you did get here. I won't leave you." He pressed his lips to her hair when she buried her face against his shoulder. "It's over now."
She knew she'd replay that endless run, the panic and the helpless grief, a thousand times in her dreams. "It's not. There'll be a full investigation, not just of Reeanna, but of your company, the people who worked with her on the project."
"I can stand it." He tipped her head back. "The company's clean. I promise. I won't cause you any official embarrassment, Lieutenant, by being arrested."
She took the handkerchief he pressed into her hand, blew her nose. "Be hell for my career, being married to a con."
"Be easy on that account. Why did she do it?"
"Because she could. That's what she said. She enjoyed the power, the control." Briskly, she rubbed her cheeks dry with the heels of her hands, hands that were nearly steady now. "She had big plans for me." The shudder was hard but brief. "Kind of a pet, I imagine. Like William. Her little trained dog. And with you dead, she figured I'd inherit all your goodies. You're not going to do that to me, are you?"
"What, die?"
"Leave me all this stuff."
He laughed, kissed her. "Only you would be annoyed by that." He brushed her hair back from her face. "She had a unit for you."
"Yeah, we didn't get around to testing it out. Feeney's down there now. I'd better let him know what happened."
"We'll have to go down. She disengaged the 'link, which is why I was on my way to you when you jumped me. I was worried when I couldn't get through."
"It's tough." She touched his face. "Caring."
"I can live with it. You'll want to go into the station, I imagine, to clean this up tonight."
"It's procedure. I've got a corpse – and four deaths to close."
"I'll take you, after you've been to the health center."
"I'm not going to the health center."
"Yes, you are."
Peabody rapped on the door, opened it. "Excuse me, the MTs are here. They need to be cleared through security."
"I'll take care of it. Have them meet us in Dr. Ott's office, would you, Peabody? They can examine Eve there before I take her in for full treatment."
"I said I'm not going in for a treatment."
"I heard you." He pressed a control on his desk. "Clear the medics through, please. Peabody, are you carrying restraints?"
"They're standard issue."
"I wonder if you might loan them to me so I can restrain your lieutenant until I deliver her to the nearest medical facility."
"Just try it, pal, and see who needs a doctor."
Peabody gnawed manfully on the inside of her cheek. A smirk at the moment wouldn't please her lieutenant. "I sympathize with your problem, Roarke, but am unable to comply. I need the job."
"Never mind, Peabody." He scooped an arm around Eve's waist, taking her weight as she limped toward the door. "I'm sure I can find a substitute."
"I've got a report to file, work to finish. I've got a dead body to transport." Eve scowled at him as he called for the elevator. "I don't have time for an exam."
"I heard you," he repeated and simply picked her up bodily and carried her into the elevator. " Peabody, tell those MTs to come armed. She's liable to make a run for it."
"Put me down, you idiot. I'm not going." She was laughing as the doors closed on them.