“Oh, no doubt, even though just to play devil’s advocate, I doubted they could do anything but destroy stuff, the way they eliminated a fucking bridge,” de Clerq said with a wry smile and a shake of his head. “A fucking wooden bridge, at that.”
“There is that,” Jed conceded with a glimmer of amusement, recalling the dollar amount on the weaponry expenditure sheet for that particular joint venture. “But they completed their mission, which was to stop a certain truck.”
“Does the Admiral know what SEED can do?”
Jed shrugged. “The man’s smarter than the others. I’m sure he has a fair idea that SEED isn’t just a password decoder. He’ll be asking some interesting questions.” He changed the subject. “What’s its status?”
“We’re working on expurgating the datagram.”
“Good.”
“I’ll give you a buzz about the general meeting soon.” De Clerq checked his watch and gave a nod before heading off.
Jed’s thoughts immediately returned to Helen as he continued his way to Dr. Kirkland’s offices. As with all the departments at COMCEN, there were different levels to Medic. Underground levels dealt with experimental science and medicine. Only the highest personnel could access Level 3 and higher. Most of TIVRRV was done here. His sleeping quarters, when Helen was under sleeping observation, were here. This was where it had all began, the experiment of synchronizing brainwaves for deep immersive virtual reality.
He punched in the security code and leaned forward for the pupil scan. Who would have thought “deep immersion” would mean that when they slept hooked to the same brain entrainment machine, they’d somehow invade each other’s dreams? He wasn’t sure what that meant, wasn’t even sure whether he liked the idea, except for now, it aided him to get physically and mentally closer to Helen Roston. That part, he liked. Very much.
Dr. Kirkland’s office door was open. He looked up expectantly when Jed walked in.
“Were you expecting me?” Jed asked.
“No, I’m waiting for Helen.”
Good. Then he didn’t need to make a trip to see her. He took a seat by the desk. “I thought she’s been cleared for a few days off. She should be at her place resting.”
“She called an hour ago and told me she needed to see me, that her condition was back.” Kirkland looked at him quizzically. “She also asked me to tell Jed McNeil that she needed to see him ASAP.”
Jed waited a beat. The implication of that message was pretty clear. “Those were her words?”
“Exact words. I didn’t give you away. I told her I’d pass that message on if I saw you, adding that it was highly unlikely since I knew you were out on a mission and would be inundated with meetings when you got back. But yet, here you are.” Kirkland’s brows lifted enquiringly. “Did you get hurt? Have you revealed yourself to her? It sounded as if she knew who her trainer was.”
Did she? Jed considered for a few moments. “She’s guessing. Probably testing you too.” Or maybe she’d finally seen his face in herdreams. She’d told him she couldn’t quite make out the face of the man whenever she had one of those shared dreams. “What else?”
“She said she was having problems sleeping, that her...ah...sensitivity was bothering her. Also, she had a massive migraine just before that. Being that Armando also had headaches when he was testing the serum, I told her to come in so I could give her another check-up, and that’s when she said she needed to see you ASAP.” Dr. Kirkland smiled. “You haven’t answered my question.”
Her “sensitivity” was a polite way to put it. Jed had seen how she’d responded to his touch during her extremely “sensitive” state. She hadn’t been willing to have anyone look at her injured leg because of it. Until he forced the issue, that was. He’d had to take care of her leg. And her. He doubted whether she’d forgiven him for that last part yet.
“I’m not injured, Doc.” Jed debated for a moment whether to tell the doctor that he and Helen had been intimate. He probably knew already. “Did she elaborate more about her sensitivity?”
Kirkland nodded. “Extreme sensitivity to touch to the point of unbearable. That’s why she hadn’t wanted a physical when she first came back in from the mission. Since she wasn’t limping any more, and knowing that you’d used the bio-compound on her leg the night before, I didn’t give her a thorough check-up.” His gaze grew more speculative. “Not that I want all the details, Jed, but if you keep giving her private visits, she’s bound to discover your identity.”
“You can’t give deep tissue massage through virtual reality, Doc.” A small wry smile formed. He liked the idea of private visitations very much. “The mind can be tricked but her injury would still be there.”
“Yes, I know, and since she’s as obstinate as you are, and wouldn’t let anyone touch her, you took the risk and went to her yourself.”
“She wasn’t being obstinate,” Jed said, and then conceded, “just a little, but it was mostly she couldn’t figure out why she felt the way she did. She wasn’t comfortable explaining her condition.”
“Even to her doctor?”
Jed shrugged. “I took care of it.”
Kirkland paused briefly, studying Jed. “And now she knows you’re her monitor.”
“She isn’t sure.” He liked the idea of pushing her further. Sexual imprinting was all about manipulation, after all. “Continue to avoid giving her a direct answer. We’ll see what she wants once she’s here.”
Want and need were two different animals. Jed knew what Helen needed. The fact she asked about him meant she was getting closer to finding out who her monitor was, but that didn’t tell him howshe was going to get relief without direct confrontation. She was going to be in one hell of a mood.
His lips quirked at using her nickname as a pun. There was no halfway when it came to Helen Roston. Everyone fondly called her “Hell-on-wheels”, “Hell-ery”, or joked that she was a hell of a woman. Now she was hell-bent on getting his identity.
