Headache. Blinding, throbbing, intensely painful headache. It struck her down like a branch hit by lightning, her knees hitting the carpeted floor.
She grasped the sides of her head, in her mind trying to loosen the imaginary band around it. Imaginary or not, the pressure was tightening to the point where she felt herself gasping for air.
Concentrate on your breathing, Hell. Concentrate.
She tried to stand but found herself unable to open her eyes more than a crack. The light coming from the tall lamp by the desk stabbed at her vision. Everything was a distorted red haze that seemed to pulse bright, then dark, with each throbbing thump in her head.
Groping around uncoordinatedly, she found the lamp stand and reached for the switch. She almost screamed her relief as the room plunged into darkness, taking some of the pain with it.
She leaned against the desk, taking deep breaths, counting to ten. The tension around her head loosened and she opened her eyes cautiously.
“Oh man, what the hell was that?” She swayed on her feet. The pain was a dull ache now. Manageable.
The computer screen illuminated the room and she reluctantly turned her eyes grimly back to the figure of the avatar. She swallowed.
No use avoiding the truth. Jed McNeil was Hades, her trainer. While trying to imagine what her avatar really looked like, she had somehow sent herself into remote-viewing mode and went in search of him instead. She knew the identity of the dead man she’d seen. After all, she’d been the one who had remote viewed and located Cummings on a ship.
“Jed McNeil,” Helen said, her voice a soft hoarse. The knowledge of who Hades was would have filled her with satisfaction if her body didn’t feel as if she’d gone ten rounds with someone much stronger. She felt incredibly weak and a little nauseated from the sudden migraine.
She closed the file and sent the system into hibernation. Then, slowly, she hobbled toward her bedroom. Her muscles felt stiff, contracted. She needed to sleep this off.
Stretching out on her bed, she released a sigh of frustration. She wasn’t feeling like her old self yet. No use calling Dr. Kirkland; she knew he wouldn’t give her a straight answer and would probably warn Jed McNeil that she now knew the truth. She didn’t know exactly what she was going to do yet about confronting Mr. McNeil and demanding the truth from him, but one thing she was sure about was that she had better be one hundred percent or that man was going to eat her for dinner.
“DID YOU HAVE ANY UNFORESEENproblems?”
Jed thought of the odd feeling that had invaded him during the last minutes on the boat. “No,” he replied. “Cummings is taken care of.”
“What do you plan to do with his wife?”
“Any suggestions?” It was up to the powers-that-be, of course, what to do with a traitor who had lost her leverage, but as long as she remained at COMCEN, she could still be of use. “Besides elimination, of course.”
“She might have useful Intel.”
“Number Eight can extract any information that may be of use,” Jed said.
“Not you?”
“I have something to do.” For the first time, Jed allowed himself to think ofher. “I’ll hear all proposals in the morning.”
“Must be something important.”
Not something. Someone. Elena Rostova. The image of her naked under him, with her long legs open wide, came too easily. The way her rosy nipples puckered up when she was aroused. The sweet arch of her strong back in the throes of passion. Most of all, he wanted to put his mouth on the sweet heat between her legs, playing with her till she bucked uncontrollably. Making Elena moan and come in different ways was fast becoming an erotic fantasy. The thought of doing that turned him on the most.
Jed blinked, a little surprised at his lack of concentration. How was it that the thought of this one woman could set his libido off like a rocket? He had no explanation for it, except maybe because he’d been watching her for so long, that when he now had finally had a taste of her in bed, he wanted more.
The airplane seat could be specially adjusted to any position, much like a car seat, and Jed pressed the button for it to lean back all the way. A footrest automatically popped up. Maximum comfort for any operative in need of catching up with sleep, something he hadn’t hadfor some time, just like Elena. But, unlike her, he didn’t have to remote view before going on a mission.
He closed his eyes, but his mind continued to focus on the woman in his thoughts. He wondered how she was at the moment. He had made sure she was given a few days off while he was on mission, so she would be around familiar surroundings to get that downtime she needed after the test she’d gone through. He felt the corners of his lips quirking in self-mockery. He wasn’t just concerned about her well being. He didn’t want Elena anywhere near his commandos, not in the state she was in. They were intrigued by the new operative in their midst too.
Elena Rostova, a.k.a. Helen Roston, GEM operative. Remote viewer—an agent trained to spy remote targets with the mind—that special covert activity that nobody wanted to talk about.
He hadn’t decided whether his fascination dealt with the woman or the power she harnessed inside her. She amazed him with her calm acceptance of what she could do. For someone who had discovered her ability to remote view barely two years ago, she was remarkably well-adjusted psychologically. Most test subjects, at this stage, would experience internal conflict because remote viewing pushed the boundaries of reality and personal beliefs.
Not his Elena. He’d watched her for a long time as she underwent extreme physical and mental training, and had yet to see her crack. Even after this last mission, with the strange effect of the serum on her body, she’d fought for control every step of the way. It’d have been so easy to give in to her body’s demands. After all, the mission was over and a success, and there was no need to be on guard.
Yet she hadn’t.
To see that kind of control mirrored in another person had left Jed secretly amused. Fate and its twisted sense of humor. For years he’d been called a control freak and he’d shrugged it off. So that was what others felt when they were around him.
