Trouble was, he didn’t have one.Or any backup.He buckled the seatbelt, slipped the van into gear, and coughed rackingly.First he had to get rid of the bodies.
Then he was going to call Henderson.
CHAPTER25
Darkness.Burn of a needle in her arm.
“It’s not Zed,” the voice said.Male, slightly whistling, familiar.“Calm down.It’s just a little cocktail to keep you reasonable while we discuss things.”
Rowan’s eyelids fluttered.Light slowly, slowly flooded in.The drugs took effect quickly, wrapping her in a warm blanket.She could not move, but was upright somehow.
Where’s Justin?
Her eyelids were heavy, so heavy, and she was strapped against something hard.Her head lolled.“Whaaaa…” A long, slurred word.Her mouth simply wouldn’t obey.
“Just be calm,” the familiar voice crooned, and uttered a high whistling giggle.“Nice and calm.I’ve waited a very long time for this.Shame we couldn’t have done it earlier, before the other testing was complete.”
I know that voice.Where am I?
But she knew that, too.Sigma had her.
With that revelation came a flood of memory and the strength to lift her head, even through the blurring disorientation of the drugs.
What greeted her was obviously a lab—bare gleaming counters, weird apparatuses set at intervals, and two monitors at the far end blinking with data.She was strapped to a chair, leather restraints at wrists and ankles, as well as her knees, elbows, torso, and throat.The effect was almost total immobility, though she could wriggle a bit, shifting drunkenly.Wires dropped from her forehead, probably attached to electrodes.She could see an IV pole, some kind of drip.
Sedation?Okay.
The lighting was clear and low, obviously turned down, and she blinked as a familiar face swam into view.Moist, dark eyes behind horn-rimmed glasses, thin cheeks and sawlike cheekbones, liver-spotted hands trembling as he raised one finger to shove the glasses higher on his nose.He wore a rumpled white lab coat, too; recognition slammed into her.
“Jilssen,” she breathed.The traitor who had shut down the security grids and let Sigma into the old Headquarters was standing right in front of her.Justin had mentioned seeing him again, confirmed he was responsible for the carnage.
It was small consolation that Rowan’s instincts had been right all along.If only she’d known what her instinctive response to him hadmeant, she might have been able to avert the massacre.But even Justin hadn’t been able to find anything at the old Headquarters.
Jilssen had covered his tracks too well.
“Hello, Rowan!”He beamed, proud of a prized specimen.His strong, crooked teeth almost glowed.“It’ssogood to see you again, without any interference.”
“Traitor.”Her mouth wouldn’t work quite right, and her head far too heavy to hold upright.She sagged against the restraints.“Traitor.”
He shook his head, the smile dimming.“You’ll soon see things in a different light, my dear.There’s work for you to do.You’ll be serving your country, and that’s very important.You should feel proud.”
She could see racks of test tubes, plus wires leading off to something.Smelled like chemicals and burned insulation; there was another faint pervasive stench of human pain and desperation.
Wherever this place was, several people had suffered here.Suffered terribly.“What are you…”
“When the Colonel arrives, we’ll begin.You see, Rowan, Sigma is just the first step.We’ve been trying to create something very important, a physical bulwark, as it were.Several years ago…” He muttered something, scooped up a clipboard and checked a flutter of paper.“Dammit, it’s not like him to be late.”
The Colonel.Adrenaline flooded her, fighting the sedation.A little easier to think, now.Anton?Maybe.Where have they taken me?How long have I been out?
The dream of revenge faded, replaced by a cold feeling in the pit of her stomach.Stupid, stupid, stupid!The blind man had buried something in her head, deep and foul, pushing her through the maze until Sigma could scoop her up.He’d distracted both Justin and her with pain and slipped the fishhook in, neat as you please.Rowan hadn’t recognized or felt the intruder because she’d been too busy worrying.
Useless, frantic worry.She should have listened to Justin.She should have?—
Well, too late for that now.Her head was clearing rapidly.Her freakish talents did that, burned up pain medication and tranquilizers much faster than normal.She tested the straps, taking care not to make any sudden moves.
Now was a fine time to wish she was telekinetic like Cath.
Come on, Ro, keep him talking.She let her head drop to the side, as if still drugged.“Whaaat?”she moaned, deliberately making her voice loud and drunk.
