“Power of positive thinking.”
“How do you know they’ve got Chloe inside that gym? The auras haven’t reported seeing any unusual activity in the alley or in front of the building.”
“She’s in there. Those bastards aren’t the CIA or the FBI, either. They don’t have unlimited resources any more than J&J does.”
“You’ve got a point,” Fallon said reluctantly.
“They could have smuggled her in through an underground entrance. Hell, maybe that’s how they got me inside.”
“It’s a possibility. What exactly are you, Jack?”
“According to Chloe I’m still just a strat. But I’m a really strong strat. I’m turning off the phone now, Fallon. I don’t want it ringing at the wrong time.”
“No, wait, don’t hang up—”
Jack cut the connection and hit the off key. He dropped the phone into his pocket, crossed the street and went down the alley behind the old brick building that housed the gym. It was only six o’clock, but at this time of the year it was already full dark.
There was a guard outside the rear entrance, but he was easily distracted by a wave of panic that had him staring, wide-eyed toward the opposite end of the ally. By the time he realized that the attack was coming from the other direction, it was too late. He swung around when he heard Jack behind him, reaching into his jacket with hunter-enhanced speed.
But there was no way even the strongest of hunters could move faster than a current of energy. Jack hit him with another sluicing wave of terror. The guard’s mind could not handle the nightmare that engulfed him. He crumpled to the ground, unconscious.
Jack dragged him behind the nearby metal trash container and stripped him of his clothes, gun and keys.
Two minutes later, dressed in the guard’s clothes, cap pulled down low over his eyes, he used the keys to enter the back of the gym. He generated small pulses of fear to make sure that the two burly-looking hunters he passed in the hall were distracted, unnerved and looking the other way when he went by.
There wasn’t a large staff in the building. He hadn’t expected to encounter a lot of people. As he had pointed out to Fallon, Nightshade was forced to work with many of the same limitations that applied to J&J. In addition, maintaining a low profile was Job One for any self-respecting conspiracy that wanted to survive.
He found the stairwell and went down into the basement, emerging in a familiar corridor. This was the reverse of the route he had followed the night he had escaped, he thought.
He found the room where he had been held with no difficulty. Being a strat meant that you never had to stop and ask for directions.
There was a guard outside the door again, a strong indicator that Chloe was locked inside. He refused to let himself think of what the bastards might have done to her. That way lay madness. He had to stay focused, or he would be of no use to her.
52
SHE WAS LYING ON THE GURNEY, SHIVERING WITH FEVER WHEN she heard the key in the lock. A few seconds later Jack came through the door. He was dressed in the style of clothing worn by the guards, right down to the cap, but she would have recognized him anywhere. He dragged the unconscious body of the guard into the room and closed the door.
“Are you okay?” he asked, coming toward her.
He was ablaze with psi. Energy swirled in the atmosphere around him. The heat in his eyes could have ignited a fire. The only thing he lacked was a flaming sword.
Avenging angel. In spite of the fever, she smiled.
“I knew you’d come for me,” she whispered. She pulled some of her own psi and used it to sit up on the edge of the gurney. “We’re leaving now, I assume?”
“Yes.” He stopped in front of her, cupping her face between his palms. “You’re running a fever.”
“I know. Fine time to come down with the flu, isn’t it? Don’t worry, I’m running a little psi to counteract the effects.” This was not the moment to tell him that she had been injected with the drug. There was no knowing how he would react, and right now it was vital that he be able to focus.
“We’ll talk later,” he said. He took her hand and led her quickly toward the door. “We need to get out of here.”
“I like a man who can prioritize.”
He glanced down at her hand in his. “You’re burning up.”
“The psi on top of the flu. Has that effect.”
“It’s not the flu. They shot you up with that sedative they used on me, didn’t they?”
“Something like that, but I’ll be okay.”
She could see that he wasn’t buying her story, but she also knew that he was strat enough to realize that there was not a thing he could do about the fever.
“I’ll go first,” he said.
He released her hand, opened the door and moved cautiously out into the hall. She felt energy pulse a little higher around him and knew that he had just made someone out in the corridor very nervous.
“Okay,” he said. “Walk ahead of me. Make it look like I’m escorting you to some other room.”
She peered out into the hall. “Which way?”
“Left.”
She took a deep breath and walked forward with what she hoped looked like weary reluctance. She didn’t have to fake the weary part. Jack stayed close behind her.
At the intersection she stopped again.
“Right,” Jack said quietly.
A door opened to her left just as she turned the corner to the right. Nash appeared. He had one hand on the knob, preparing to step out into the hall. He did not see her immediately because he was looking back into the room and speaking to someone else in low, tense tones. She could feel the disturbing energy of the lamp seeping out of the opening.
She halted and took a step back. But there was nowhere to run and no time. Nash was already swiveling toward her.
“After Brown wakes up and we’ve confirmed the success of the experiment, we’re going back to Portland,” Nash said to the other person in the room. “I want to make a few more trial runs before I let the Harper woman use that lamp on me.”
“Yes, yes, I understand,” Hulsey said impatiently.
Nash saw Chloe. Rage twisted his features.
“Who let you out of your room?” he snarled.
Jack came around the corner. “I did.”
“Who the hell are you?”
Nash’s fury was too sudden and definitely over the top, Chloe thought. It was as if he had skipped the more natural, preliminary stages of confusion and annoyed authority entirely and gone straight to irrational loss of temper. The Nightshade drug was affecting more than just his senses.