Damn! If only he could get into Lyle's mind! He
didn't know if it was his emotional connection to the situation, or his
abhorrence of the thoughts of psychopaths, but he just couldn't seem to get a
handle on this situation.
He ignored the tiny voice inside of him that
insisted that he didn't know what Lyle was thinking because he was afraid to. There
was one thing that he had to admit, though. The only reason Lyle would give up
the opportunity to torture him, was if he had something better in mind. A
better torture to prepare for, or a better victim to torture, or both.
A shudder rippled through Jarod. Lyle was clever. In
his madness it was easy to overlook his cunning, but that would be a fatal trap
to fall into, especially now. Lyle was acting according to some plan, Jarod was
convinced of that, and he could assume that this plan had the ultimate goal of
punishing him for his years of absence and rebellion from the Centre. That Lyle
planned to use Anne against him was a given, but why hadn’t he at least brought
the two of them together?
Jarod's uneasiness was rising to frantic levels.
Anne was in danger----more danger than he had imagined possible. He had to get
out of this room!
`Where the hell is Parker?' He wondered grimly. `And
Sydney and Broots? They said they’d try to get Anne and Deirdre to safety, did
they? No, they can’t have. Lyle would be here throwing a fit if Anne was gone.
Has Lyle done something to them too?'
As if his desperation had conjured it Jarod heard
two muffled shots and the door to his cell flew open. There she stood, gun
pointed towards the ceiling, but held with both hands so that she could fire in
an instant. She truly was magnificent and Jarod felt slightly stunned. For a
moment the two exchanged long, assessing looks.
There had been something between them once, before
the Centre and it's twisted secrets had turned him into the hunted and her into
the hunter. She noted his limp, and the cane. His healed lacerations from the
window escape still shone with thin, reddish purple scar tissue, but he was
still handsome and a commanding presence.
He noted the hair flying wildly around her face, and
the glitter of fury in her eyes. For a moment he was worried that the anger was
directed at him, but almost as soon as the thought manifested he realized that
Parker had finally thrown her traces. She’d turned against the Centre with a
vengeance and she had released years of suppressed rage to empower her. He
tried to smile.
"Thanks. I was just wondering where you were.
How is she?" He asked hopefully, knowing that she would know exactly who
he referred to.
She was his childhood friend, and he knew her almost
as well as he knew himself, as she did him. She didn’t disappoint him.
"Bad." She answered tersely. "She
won’t let Sydney examine her, won’t even acknowledge our presence. If we push
it, she curls into a ball like a potato bug."
"How long have I been here?"
"About 3 hours."
"Damn!" Jarod began hobbling towards the
door, frustration clearly on his face as he examined the possibilities with
lightning speed. "Curt and his should be here any minute now, and Anne and
Deirdre are still in the line of fire."
"Deirdre is okay. Broots got her to safety with
the help of her nurse and the nurse’s Sweeper friend. Anne, though, is far too
heavily guarded. He’s obsessed with her, Jarod." She had modified her pace
to match his, but it was obviously an effort for her. Her gaze moved constantly
all around them and her 9 mm was ready in her hand. "I have no doubt that
one of the orders he gave her guards was to kill her at the first sign of
trouble. And just who the hell is Curt?"
"I honestly don’t know. He’s a part of some
government agency that cleans up cesspools like the Centre. I’ve been helping
them since sometime after Anne was taken."
She turned the knob to one of the unmarked doors
lining the corridor, and a moment later it was like a family reunion. Sydney,
Broots, both Sams and Angelo all waited in the small conference room. After a
brief, but joyous round of greetings, where Sydney fretted over Jarod's still
healing injuries and Jarod reassured Sam Flemming of Sally's safety, Parker
pulled them all back to the important task---liberating Anne before Lyle killed
her.
"Leavenworth is easier to get out of." She
finished her summary of the situation grimly.
"Angelo?" Jarod turned to his other
childhood friend entreatingly. "Did you feel anything from Anne while you
were there? Do you feel anything now?"
Angelo thought about it, his eyes seeming to look
inward while he reached out with his other senses.
"Annie far away." He finally offered
quietly. "Wants to sleep."
"Sleep how?" Jarod's voice expressed the
alarm everyone was feeling.
"Sleep always---no more pain." The sorrow
on Angelo's face made his meaning more than clear.
"We're going in there!" Jarod declared
fiercely.
"Yes, we are." Parker answered bracingly.
"But not without a plan. We do her no good if we get ourselves
killed."
"Sleep." Angelo said suddenly. Everyone
looked at him blankly.
"Guards sleep, no guns." He tried again.
Still they looked blank, until Jarod burst out.
"Of course! There has to be a colorless and
odorless sleep gas somewhere in this mausoleum! If we flood the floor----"
"If Anne is as close to death as Angelo
intimated," Sydney objected regretfully, "this could kill her."
"We have to take the chance." Parker said
decisively when Jarod hesitated. "It's the only chance she has!" She
added firmly when he continued to hesitate.
"She's right." Jarod agreed reluctantly.
"Let's hurry."
They sketched a quick plan of action, divided up the
tasks among themselves, and separated moments later. Accustomed to Angelo's
silence and almost invisible presence, no one noticed when Angelo left them
during the planning.
An hour later the four plotters burst through the
door to Anne's prison. Their eyes were almost immediately drawn to the far
corner where a gas masked Angelo crouched watchfully over what initially looked
like a crumpled blanket on the floor.
Jarod recognized the small form underneath the
blanket first, and in his fear nearly made all the way to her side without
using his cane once. When he got closer, however, he realized that she too had
a gas mask on. It wasn't until he knelt, though, and felt her pulse throbbing
gently at her neck, that he allowed himself to believe she was still alive.
Her blue eyes were open, but they seemed to gaze
blankly at nothing---she barely even blinked. Jarod noted the signs of abuse
under the gas mask, and the bare shoulder peeking out of the blanket indicated
that she was naked. His heart sank and he began to pray in his mind, asking a
nearly forgotten God to save his Annie.
"Annie?" He breathed gently, blinking
rapidly to push back his tears. "Annie it's me, Jarod. It's okay, now.
You're safe." She didn't acknowledge his words by so much as a flicker of
an eyelash.
Parker determined that there was nothing they could
do, and motioned Sydney, Broots, and Sam to join her in the corridor. There,
they busied themselves in handcuffing all of the Sweepers they found. By the
time they had finished the gas had been cleared from that floor, and they
removed the uncomfortable masks while they walked back to the room.
"What do you think, Sydney?" She asked
quietly, as they neared the door. "Is there any hope for her?"
"There’s always hope." He told her
honestly, but his eyes were troubled and a worried frown creased his brow.
Parker's face imitated that worried frown, but she'd
been trained in security well, and her sharp mind told her that their work
wasn't done. Lyle was still on the loose, and would be doubly dangerous once he
discovered that he no longer controlled Anne. Parker hadn’t been kidding when
she said that Lyle was obsessed with Anne.
"We've got to neutralize Lyle." She told
the Sams bluntly.
Sweeper Sam nodded, his dark eyes fixed on Jarod and
Annie in the corner of the room. Jarod and Angelo had also removed their masks,
and Anne's. Jarod held Anne's blanketed form, rocking her gently in the same
corner she had claimed as her sanctuary. Angelo crouched patiently beside them,
his expression grave.
"I didn't know, Miss." Sam told her
guiltily. "I didn't want to know."
"None of us did, Sam." Parker's eyes held
an unfamiliar light in them, sympathy. "But I'd like to believe we would
have stopped him if we had. Now, all we can do is clean up the mess and pray
for the best."
"Jarod, how is she?" Sydney asked him gently.
Slowly Jarod's head raised, his eyes so full of
anguish that Parker covered her mouth to repress a cry of dismay and Sam
Flemming closed his eyes to brace himself for the worst. They were sure that
they'd come too late.
"She should survive what he did to her."
Jarod's words eased their initial fears, but his next words raised more.
"But she doesn't respond---to anything. I can't reach her, Syd!
She---she---" He closed his eyes and drew a deep breath.
"I'm afraid that her mind might be---" He
couldn't force the words out.
Sydney nodded, and knelt in front of them to conduct
his own, quick examination.
"Broots, would you get my bag from my
office?" He requested a few moments later, after he'd checked her pupils
and reflexes as best he could without tools.
"We'll go with him." Parker volunteered
herself and Sam without a second thought.
She was uneasy around so much naked emotion, and the
fact that her brother had wrought so much devastation made her feel
unaccountably dirty. It was as if his evil had somehow tarnished her soul.
"Good idea." Sydney agreed absently, as he
watched Jarod and the utterly still woman in his arms carefully. "There
are still plenty Sweepers loyal to your brother around. But I think it's best
if you stay here, Parker, to guard them, and Broots and I go with Sam."
"I’ll help." Sam Flemming volunteered,
examining the handgun he’d been supplied earlier with brief competence.
"I’m still a crack shot.
Parker's eyes darkened uncomfortably and her eyes
darted from Jarod and Anne to the door like a trapped animal. She wanted to be
gone, she didn’t want to have to see what her brother was guilty of. Then her
rational mind kicked in and she nodded. The Sweepers Lyle had left here were
neutralized, but the moment Jarod's friends showed up Lyle would be on his way
here.
"Okay, Syd." She agreed unhappily.
"But hurry."
She didn't want to stay here and feel Jarod's pain
or see Anne's unresponsiveness. She didn't want to feel anymore guilt for her
affiliation with the Centre that had allowed---no, encouraged it. But,
at the same time, she felt a need to do something that would erase those
feelings of guilt; to pay for her relationship to the man who'd caused all of
this agony. She closed the door behind the departing men, and turned her attention
to her two oldest friends.
"What are her injuries?" She asked, not
sure she wanted to know, but needing to fill the silence.
She couldn't help but note the bruises on Anne's
face, or remember the condition of her back when she'd seen it earlier today.
There was no question that Anne would bear scars for the rest of her life.
Parker wondered if that had been Lyle's intention all along; to place a
permanent mark on her.
"She's got several lumps on her skull, but none
that worry me unduly." Jarod answered, clicking almost obviously into a
physician's mindset. "There's extensive bruising everywhere on her body,
but I didn't detect any signs of internal bleeding. She's breathing very
shallowly, and seemed like she wanted to protect her right side, so I think
she's got some bruised ribs at the very least."
Parker nodded, turning her eyes away to scan the
room carefully. It was more that just the watchfulness of sentry duty----she
couldn't bear the sight of Anne's blankly staring eyes. She felt like they were
silently accusing her.
She felt a grudging respect for the frail seeming
woman, realizing that her survival this long indicated a strength that quite
frankly awed her. And if Jarod cared about her, had continued to care for her
through the months they'd been free, she must have something special to offer
him. She found herself wishing she could get to know her better, wondering if
they would have been friends under other circumstances.
"Jarod," Parker's blue eyes, a shade paler
that Anne's, were focused determinedly on the door as she spoke. She had to say
the words, but she couldn't bring herself to look at him while she did.
"I swear, I had no idea." She assured him,
wondering if he would believe her; if he could forgive her. "If I
had---"
"I know, Parker, I know." He cut her off
gently, kindly. "You aren’t responsible for Lyle’s sins."
It was all he said, but it was enough. A fraction of
the guilt weighing on her soul lifted at his obvious understanding.
We could hear them, dimly.
It was like we were lost somewhere in a dark cave,
and the voices of people we knew were filtering down to us through tiny cracks
in the stone around us.
We could feel Jarod's distress, but couldn't summon
up the energy to care. It was quiet here, and peaceful and we hadn’t known much
peace lately.
`I should let Jarod know I'm alive.' One of us thought hazily.
One of others was adamantly against that. She was
convinced that any response at all would bring him back.
`Lyle's gone.' The part that wanted to speak to Jarod tried
to tell her, but she knew better.
`But we heard Sydney and Miss Parker. How could they
be here if Lyle wasn't gone?'She asked reasonably.
The other didn't know, but she was certain that it
was all a cruel trick and that we must be silent and still. She dredged up the
memory of the time we’d been catatonic, pointing out that Lyle had taken us to
the infirmary and left us alone for two whole days. Unresponsiveness was our
only hope, she insisted firmly.
The part that cared gave up the argument. Moving
hurt, and we were all tired of pain. In fact, we were just tired period. If
Jarod was truly here all it really meant was that we didn’t have to live for
Deirdre any longer. Her father would take good care of her, we all knew that.
Outside our rocky shell Jarod and our few friends
might be waiting, but so was the pain, and we weren't willing to endure it just
to reassure Jarod. What could we tell him anyway?
’We’re still alive, but now that you’re here we can
give up. Glad you made it, but we don't think Lyle left much for you.’ Or maybe a simple; ’Hi
honey, what took you so long?’
No, silence was the only real choice we had. Maybe
after we had rested some and weren’t so tired we could evaluate the situation
and make a decision. Right now we just wanted to sleep for a couple of hundred
years.
The cautious part of us radiated a quiet
satisfaction that we'd given up the argument, but it vanished when we realized
that we were no longer alone in our mind. There was another presence here!
’Don't be afraid.’ He thought soothingly, stepping out of the
shadows.
’Not afraid!’ The other thought, crouching like an animal waiting
to spring and hands curling into claws.
"Sydney? What's going on? Why is she tensing
like that?" Jarod's voice sounded more clearly in our mind.
We suspected it was being carried by the intruder's
mind.
’Go away!’ The other sent to the intruder, thinking red
thoughts of attack.
’No.’ He answered simply. ’Anne needs us.’
‘What do you mean? What can you do to for me?’ Suddenly we were no longer a
muddled conglomerate of personalities, but only two.
I stepped cautiously out of the shadows recognizing
Angelo and accepting his presence in my mind as one accepts the presence of all
kinds of fantastic things while one is dreaming. I saw my other self, my
protector, crouched beside me like an attack dog, and accepted that calmly as
well.
Angelo smiled, and made a gentle movement with his
hand, and a second Angelo appeared.
’I'm not Angelo, I'm Timmy. He's Angelo.’ He explained calmly.
Angelo and my other self approached each other
cautiously. She was deeply suspicious of this development, I could tell, but
now that my initial shock was over it made perfect sense to me.
’Angelo is your other.’ I thought with the warmth
of understanding. It was kind of nice not to be the only one with a crowded
mind.
’Yes.’ Tim smiled with encouragement. ’But I never come
out. I'm pretty much just along for the ride.’
’Don't you want to come out?’ I asked curiously.
’Sometimes.’ He admitted with a hint of regret. ‘But by the
time I no longer needed Angelo to protect me from Raines, I couldn't find my
way back out anymore.’
Angelo and the other were staring deeply into each
other's eyes and I wondered if they were communicating.
‘Yes.’ Tim answered my thought, even though I hadn’t
"spoken". ‘He's trying to convince her that Lyle is truly gone but
it's not going over well.’
’Why not?’ I demanded, feeling a thrill of alarm thread through
me. I suspected that Tim had something unpleasant to tell me and I wasn’t
wrong.
’Because we don't really know where he is.’ He confessed reluctantly.
He took a quick step forward as both of us retreated
further into the shadows at that news.
’But you're safe!’ He insisted urgently. ‘Parker
is out there with her 9mm and your friend Sam is here and armed too. Lyle can’t
hurt you anymore.’
’Not until he kills or hurts them too.’ I voiced the other's dismay
with slightly better verbal skills. ‘As long as he’s alive he can find a way
to hurt us. We aren’t coming out again to let him. Believe me, it’s better this
way. Everyone we come in contact with get hurt and I don’t want any more pain
on my head.’
And the two of us melted further into the stone of
our shelter, until neither Timmy or Angelo could find us.
"Anne is still afraid." I heard Angelo
volunteer from that comforting distance. "Won’t come out."
"Is she still there, Angelo?" Sydney
asked, his voice heavy with doubt. "She isn't responding to any stimulus
at all."
"Anne is still here." Angelo insisted.
"She hides from pain."
"What can we do, Sydney?" Jarod's voice
pulled me forward a little, before the other pulled me back beside her in the
darkness.
His beautiful chocolate voice was dull with pain and
I wanted to ease that pain. But the other was insistent, and I wasn’t strong
enough to fight her.
"Right now, Jarod, there's only one thing I can
do for her." Sydney answered; regret at his powerlessness coloring his
voice. "They say sleep is a great healer." He added gently.
I wondered what he meant by that, until I felt the
unmistakable prick of a needle. He was sedating us, I realized with a rush of
gratitude. I welcomed the warmth that spread from my arm throughout my body.
The multitude of aches and pains screaming for my attention faded and I dove
into the beckoning darkness eagerly.
"Maybe when she wakes up she'll know us?"
I could barely hear Jarod asking Sydney hopefully.
He wasn't a genius with all the answers now, but a
little boy, begging his father for reassurance.
"It's possible, Jarod." Sydney told him
gently, but with no real conviction. He didn’t want to disillusion Jarod, but
experience told him it wasn’t going to be that easy.
‘No.’ The other answered my half formed thought that I
might just come out then. ’No more pain. Not ever.’
Before I could formulate a response the darkness rose
higher and we sank like a stone below the surface of sleep.