Chapter 30
Zelup hurried to the lab entrance, covered in a cold sweat. Reaching the door, he tried the last security code he could remember, but it errored out. “Fuck!”
He hit the intercom button, then turned to the camera. “Ladee, let me in!”
Nothing happened.
His mind whirred with the myriad possibilities of terror that could be taking place, and he hit the intercom again. She could be hurt or dying. They could have tortured her, misused her, or something even worse. “Open up! Right the fuck now!”
“You don’t give the orders here, asshole!”
Her voice hit him like a punch to the groin. He slid down the wall, relief covering him like a soothing balm.
“Dawn, let me in. I need to talk to you.”
“I have no interest in talking to you. Kindly fuck off.”
Zelup was puzzled by the heat in her tone. Although they might not have parted in the best of ways, there had been no animosity between them when he left. At least it hadn’t seemed like it.
“What’s going on, Dawn? Why won’t you let me in? You’re in danger.”
Harsh laughter crackled over the intercom. “If anyone is in danger, it’s you. I’m about to call the intergalactic police and have you charged with trespassing and corporate espionage. So get the hell off my property before they show up and arrest you.”
Trespassing? Corporate espionage? Had they somehow reset? He’d settled all her mistaken claims about him. Why was she making these threats now?
There was no time to sit outside the lab and ponder it. “Let me in now,” he said, using all of his powers of persuasion. The door buzzed open and he rushed inside, making sure he would not be shut out again.
“How did you get in here?” she yelled, abandoning the security console and rushing toward her workbench. She picked up a laser drill and aimed it at him menacingly. “Don’t come fucking near me.”
“Why are you acting this way?” he asked. It made no sense.
“Why am I acting this way? Why the fuck are you here? Whatever technology you used to open the door won’t work again. I’ll figure out a countermeasure, so don’t count on ever seeing this place again.”
“You know how I got in here. I’ve told you all this.” Could she have forgotten? How? “Dawn.” He held his hands in the air and stepped closer. “I don’t know what’s going on, but something has happened to you.”
“Something’s going to happen to you if you take another step closer,” she said, motioning with the drill. “Something real bad.”
Zelup frowned. “Where’s Ladee? I called him less than an hour ago. The connection got cut, which caused me to rush over here.”
“Where’swho? Are you talking about another spy? No one else is here.”
Zelup’s heart dropped into his stomach. “I’m talking about Ladee. The robot you designed. Where is he?”
“I don’t know anyone named Ladee,” she spit back. “Stop trying to place false narratives in my mind. And stop trying to talk to me like we’re friends. I know what you did to me, and you’ll never get a chance to do it again.”
He was concerned at her tone. Dawn’s face was hard, but underneath, he could tell she was about to crumble. He had to figure out what was going on. “What did I do to you?”
“Like you don’t remember. You took Brian away, then attempted to seduce me yourself. You stole the prototype for my last experiment and your company is using it to build a mind-control device. And now you’re trying to worm you way back in and steal my data. Well, I’m on to you, so you can just forget about it. I’m going to figure out a way to stop you, and then you’ll be sorry for ever fucking with me!”
“None of that is true!” Zelup realized then that her memories had been tampered with. If she couldn’t remember Ladee and if she was stuck on the story of his supposed spy game, someone had to have planted those things in her mind.
The image of the two men from the Double V flashed in his mind. He knew suddenly that they had something to do with the situation. He wasn’t sure how he knew, but it didn’t matter. All that mattered was that he had to do something to help his beloved.
Are you sure that’s a good idea?If you leave things as they are, with her hating and mistrusting you, you will never be able to win your way back into her good graces. She will forever be lost to you, which is what you need to assume your place back on Vartik.
In a way, the little voice inside him was right. It might be easier to let her go on hating him. Then he could never be tempted to return to Pallas and pick up where they’d left off. He’d be forced to let her go and perhaps finally be able to concentrate on his upcoming rule and the Vartik female he would eventually marry.
It might be easier, but I can’t do it.
