The Operator

Michael’s smile faded. “That was Evocane in the safe, wasn’t it.”

She nodded, remembering Helen giving him the vial she’d had with her and telling him to dispose of it. Peri had just been given one dose. That left twenty-four hours—best case. “Few days’ worth,” she said, knowing she had to be out of here before then. “Why do you need the pass code if it’s been searched?” she asked, the beginnings of a plan trickling into place. She didn’t even know whether Silas was alive. If he was, she would get him free. If he wasn’t, she’d send Michael to join him.

“To reset it to me,” he said slyly. “Some idiot put it into lockdown trying to drive it out. Helen thinks it went into the Atlantic with you, but you don’t throw something that beautiful away. At least not until you’ve used it up.”

Her lip curled. “Stay out of my car.”

Chuckling, he looked at his phone again. It was starting to irritate her. “You might change your mind.” Apparently satisfied, he put his phone away and took another swallow of water, eyeing her as if waiting for something. A flicker of unease rose as she realized Jack was still staring at his hand in fascination, his fingers going see-through. What’s more, a pleasant lassitude was filling her. Evocane wasn’t supposed to do that.

Something to make the next hour more tolerable. Shit, they’d laced her Evocane.

Peri took a step back, alarm pulling through her like a hot ribbon. Her muscles were beginning to feel warm even in the chill of the back room. A faint buzz sounded between her ears, and her fingertips were numb when she pressed them together. The tech had laced her Evocane with something to get her talking. Seeing as she didn’t have a reason not to, she would.

“She never will, you know,” she said. “Accelerate you?” she added when Michael’s eyebrows rose in a request for explanation. “Even if I hadn’t found that big old hole in her plans and blew myself through it. Want to know why?” Pulse fast, she carefully walked to the front of her cell and sat down on the discarded WEFT jacket before a wobble showed. “Because she wants the best. And you’re not it. I’m the better agent. Say it,” she mocked.

“You’re not as bulletproof as you think.” He stood so fast that the chair scraped backward.

Head resting against the fencing, she sighed, not needing to breathe again for at least four heartbeats. She couldn’t take her eyes off Jack, now spinning in a circle like a dog after his tail, watching himself go transparent under the effect of the drugs. “Hey, uh, babe? I don’t feel so good,” he murmured.

“I’m not surprised,” she whispered when he vanished with a tiny pop. Apparently she had no intuition under the influence of whatever drug Michael had forced on her. Curious. “Where are we? Newport?”

Michael ignored her, fiddling with his phone.

“Is Silas okay?” she asked, slurring to make him think she was deeper than she was. Three more minutes and it might be real. “If you hurt him, I’ll be pissed. You won’t like me when I’m pissed.”

He looked up, his dress shoes scraping on the old cement. “I don’t like you now.”

She chuckled, feeing the chemicals taking a stronger hold. Her obstinate nature gave her some resistance, but with no stake in the outcome, she was going to talk. She needed to talk now, before she lost all control.

“You want to know my secrets,” she said, letting her chuckle turn into a giggle-laced sigh. “It looks like you do.” Her head lolled, and she squinted up at him through one eye. “What’s your plan here, Major Delusion? I’m surprised you didn’t just let me slip into withdrawal. Force the truth out of me that way. Why all the drugs?”

Michael looked down at her with the keen sharpness of gauging her high. “Because anything gained under duress is not going to be the truth.” His legs folding gracefully, he sat down on the cement right before her, nothing but chain link between them. “You would tell me only what you think I want to hear so I will stop the pain. We proved that in the sixties. Torture is just an old white man’s need for revenge.” He picked a piece of gummed label off the wire between them and flicked it away. “I’m trying to be more forgiving to the people under me. You can’t help it if you’re ineffective. Besides, we have very good drugs these days.”

She blinked at him, hoping she wasn’t too far gone. “How big of you, Michael. Tell you what. Just for that, I’ll tell you what you want to know. For free.”

“I know you will.”

“But I want some assurance that Silas is okay first,” she said, eyes closed as she put her face against the fencing. “I want to talk to him.”

“No,” Michael said shortly. “Helen has Denier tucked into one of her labs. I don’t have easy access.”

Good to know. Peri lazily opened one eye. “Jack could do it,” she taunted. “You just don’t want to. Lazy ass.”

A jolt of adrenaline pulsed as she heard the fabric of his suit sliding as he eased closer, almost whispering, “Why did Helen suspend the program? How did you fail?”

She blinked slowly. “I didn’t fail. I succeeded. I’ve got a renewable source of Evocane that she can’t control, and I got it in a week while under fire.” His eyes narrowed and she added, “And that’s a problem, because if you take the anchor out of the equation, we are all loose cannons.” She smiled with half her face. “It makes for a very unsecure workforce. But you don’t plan on working for her, do you.”