Girl Undercover 10 & 11: The Abduction & Dante's Inferno (7 page)

“Is that why you’ve invented this elaborate fantasy about this corporation that’s about to take over the world by”—she narrowed her eyes as though trying to remember something—“by overthrowing the U.S. government, was it? Using a bunch of genetically engineered humans they control?”

“It’s not a fantasy,” I said. “But I realize it does sound crazy. Sadly, it’s all true.”

“Uh-huh. And you can prove it, I take it?”

“Yes, but it would be very hard. Not to mention time-consuming. It’s far easier if you can determine somehow that this is not just me imagining all of this only because I can’t deal with the fact that Nick was murdered.”

Dr. Sokoloff pushed up her glasses at the same time as the corner of her mouth quirked up. “I’ll bet it would be a lot easier. For you.”

I removed my foot from my knee and put it on the floor, leaning toward her while placing my elbows on her desk. “I told Captain Brady the truth, doctor. Yes, dealing with Nick’s death was not easy for me—still isn’t, but, with all due respect, I’m far too busy trying to stop Stenger and The Adler Group from realizing their worldview to deal with my grief right now.”

She cocked a brow. “Stenger?”

“Otto Stenger is the mastermind behind all of this.”

“I see.”

I pushed out a frustrated breath, getting in her face. “Come on, you
know
me. You know I’m not a feeble-minded person, the kind that would make something like this up no matter how much pain I was in. And you have ways to test me. Please test me so that you can verify to Brady that I’m not crazy. The world as we know it is about to end, for God’s sake! If I don’t pass your test, feel free to deem me insane. I’ll take any and as many tests as you want me to.”

She inclined her head in consent. “All right, I will give you one chance. I will hypnotize you and see how you do. Okay?”

“Whatever you need to do to be confident I’m telling the truth. Hypnosis is your specialty, isn’t it?”

“Yes, that’s correct. I did my dissertation on hypnosis when taking my doctoral degree at Harvard. It’s a great technique when you want to get to the bottom of something. I personally believe it’s more accurate than any lie detector test in terms of arriving at the truth.”

“Sounds great. Can we do it now?”

She checked the big calendar on her desk, then glanced back up at me. “I can’t see why not, as long as you’re aware that you might be wiped emotionally afterward. Getting hypnotized can be quite exhausting.”

“I don’t mind. I can always take a nap when we’re done. Look, I’m willing to do
whatever it takes
for you to believe me, doctor.”

“Fine. Have you been hypnotized by someone else before?”

I shook my head no. “Never.”

“Okay then. Are you comfortable in that chair?”

I glanced down at the worn seat. “It’s not bad.”

“That’s not good enough.” She pointed to the old loveseat in a corner on which several tall stacks of papers sat. “Let me move the papers and you can lie down there. It’s crucial that you’re comfortable during the hypnosis for it to be most successful. But before I do that, let me get the mood in the room right.”

She pushed her chair away from her desk and got to her feet. The pantsuit she wore did little to hide her excess weight, which was concentrated to her stomach, making her look pregnant. Because she was well into her forties, closing in on fifty, I didn’t think pregnancy was the reason but sheer fat gain. She walked over to the one window in her office and grabbed the lever that controlled the position of the blinds and turned it. The light in the room dimmed significantly, but not enough so we couldn’t see each other and the furniture. Then she walked over to the loveseat and removed all the stacks of paper, placing them on the floor and on a side table. Turning around, she waved for me to come over.

I stood up and went over to the old khaki-colored canvas sofa and sat down on it.

“Make sure you’re in a comfortable position,” she said. “You’re welcome to lie down and put your feet up.”

Kicking off my flip-flops, I lay back against one side of the small sofa and swung my feet up over the other side.

She pulled up the gray chair I had been sitting in and placed it before me, sitting down there so she faced me. She smiled.

"Are you comfortable?” she asked.

I nodded. “Very.”

“Great. It’s important that you do exactly as I tell you, okay?”

“Okay.”

“Take a deep breath in,” she said in a soothing voice. “Fill your chest and lungs with air. Bring it all the way down to your stomach..."

I did as she told me while seeing and hearing how she, too, inhaled deeply.

“Now slowly let the air out of your lungs,” she continued, exhaling slowly herself. “Completely empty your lungs, Gabriella. Now breathe in deeply again. Keep breathing all the way into your stomach and then let the air out again. Do it again. Breathe in, breathe out... Breathe in, breathe out… In, out. In, out. That’s good… Can you feel yourself relaxing?”

I kept breathing in and out deeply all the way down into my stomach. “Yes…”

“Good. Now I want you to pick an object in the room that’s still and just focus on that. The lamp on my desk might be a good one.” She gave me a few seconds to find something to rest my gaze one. I ended up fixing it on the orange lampshade like she had suggested. “Keep looking at that same spot as you keep doing the deep breathing,” she said.

I kept staring at the lampshade, and, as I concentrated on the breathing, felt how my eyelids got heavier and heavier.

“If you want to close your eyes, go ahead and do so,” she suggested in that incredibly soothing voice that was so unlike her regular one. The sound of that alone was hypnotizing.

I let my eyelids droop until my eyes were fully closed.

“Now imagine that you’re at the top of a staircase in a warm, quiet room. There are ten steps and at the bottom, there’s a door. When you pass through this door, you will reach a state of pure relaxation. Can you see the door?”

“Yes…”

“Good. Take the first step down and feel yourself sinking deeper into relaxation. Each step is a step further into your subconscious. Now you step down the second step and feel yourself getting calmer and calmer. When you reach the third step, your body feels as if it is floating blissfully away…”

She kept talking, instructing me how to breathe, what to think of, asking me if I trusted that she wanted me to succeed. Telling her that I did, I felt myself drift farther and farther away from my body, the descent becoming increasingly real. As I opened that imaginary door, I had entered a pleasant trance. She asked me to picture my wedding day then, think about how I felt before I went down the aisle. Bringing back the memory was surprisingly easy. Suddenly, I was just there.

“Were there a lot of people at your wedding?” she asked softly.

“Yes, the church was full…”

“Think about all the people who were there. How they were looking at you as you walked down the aisle.”

All the expectant, mostly smiling faces were instantly in my mind’s eye.

“How does it smell in the church?” she asked.

I inhaled and that faint smell of flowers and candle wax entered my nostrils. I told her about it.

“Is it cold? Warm? Or just right?”

“It’s just right,” I mumbled.

“Who’s next to you?”

“My dad. He’s walking me down the aisle.”

“Keep walking down the aisle, Gabriella. Who do you see waiting for you at the other end?”

“Nick… He’s looking so handsome. He never looked so good before.”

“Does he look happy?”

“Yes… He’s smiling. I’m reaching him now. Oh, God, it feels so good to see him again. Be with him… I missed him so much.”

“He loves you so much. Every time you’re together, this is obvious. He wants you to be happy. Do you want him to be happy, Gabriella?”

“Of course. I love him.”

“Do you believe he wants you to always be happy, no matter what?”

“Yes… Yes, I do.”

“Do you think he would want you to spend the rest of your life trying to find his killers? Become a different person, be far away from family and friends? Never have a chance of being truly happy again because all you can think about is how to avenge his death? To hurt so much you don’t allow yourself to feel anything again. Would he want that for you?”

“I… I… No. No, I don’t think he would want that for me…”

“What would make him happy?”

I heard Nick’s voice in my head then:
“There’s nothing better than seeing you smile, Gabi.”

I told Dr. Sokoloff about it.

“Are you smiling when you’re thinking about who killed him?” she asked.

I didn’t answer. I couldn’t answer. Vivid images of his tortured body filled my mind, and suddenly my eyes were full of hot tears. They were soon streaming down my cheeks. Or had they been there already, and I only noticed them now? I had no idea.

“I think that’s answer enough,” Dr. Sokoloff whispered then. “Do you think it would make Nick happy to see you like this?”

I sniffled, wiping away the tears with the heels of my hands.

“Answer me, Gabriella. Do you think it would make him happy?”

“No,” I finally managed to get out. “No, it wouldn’t make him happy.”

“Do you want to make him happy?”

“Yes. Yes, I do.”

“Then you must stop this madness. There is no evil company about to overthrow governments across the world. There are no mad scientists who’ve genetically engineered embryos to become super humans. There are no corrupt politicians working to help The Adler Group’s leader make his warped worldview come true, are there, Gabriella?”

My tears suddenly dried up. Calmly, I said, “I wish I could tell you it was all part of my brain dealing with the loss of Nick, but it isn’t. It’s all very, very true, unfortunately.”

A long silence ensued during which images of what awaited us after New Year’s Eve began to fill my mind. Finally Dr. Sokoloff told me to open my eyes.

She regarded me for a long, tense moment. Then she stood up and walked over to the window where she turned the handle to the blinds, allowing for daylight to seep into her office again. She remained there, hands on her hips, and gazed out into the street outside.

“Do you believe me?” I asked her back.

Slowly, she turned around. “Yes, I do believe you. And I will tell Captain Brady my thoughts as soon as you leave my office.”

Chapter 6

After my session with Dr. Sokoloff was over, I drove to a Baja Burritos franchise, a Tex Mex fast-food restaurant I had always loved, and ordered a huge steak burrito with lots of sour cream and guacamole in it. I needed all the calories, feeling utterly depleted after the hypnosis that had forced me to dig so deep into my mind and soul. I was glad I was wearing the ball cap for reasons other than not wanting to bump into people I knew now; my eyes were red and swollen after all the tears I’d shed and my face was puffy. One peek in the small mirror in the psychologist’s office had made me yelp at the unsightliness.

I took my time eating the burrito, chewing slowly and enjoying every bite of it, thinking how much I had missed this joint. When I was done, I tried Ian on the phone, wanting to share my success with Dr. Sokoloff with him. It was pretty fundamental after all, as Captain Brady would have no choice but to believe me now. I also wanted to discuss with Ian what our next step should be. How would we best mobilize all of Brady’s contacts in law enforcement across the country? We had already gone over this to some extent, but it wouldn’t hurt to do it again. Besides, I needed to kill some time before calling Brady anyway. Who knew how long he and Dr. Sokoloff would be on the phone dissecting me? That is, if she’d even gotten hold of him.

Unfortunately, Ian didn’t pick up, so I left a message, telling him to call me back as soon as he heard it.

Deciding that I would drive to the apartment in Downtown L.A. next to see how things were going with the two doctors, I left the Tex Mex place and headed over to my car. My phone started to ring the second I closed the door to the white Toyota.

That was quick,
I thought, sure it was Ian calling me back. But when I found the phone in my purse I saw that it was Brady, not Ian, who was trying to reach me.

I pressed the Talk button and put the phone to my ear.

“Hello, Captain,” I said.

“Hello, Longoria. How are you feeling?”

“I’m okay, thank you. How about you?” Having been near death not long ago, there was still reason to worry about his health, even though he looked better than ever.

“I’m fine, thanks. I just got off the phone with Dr. Sokoloff down at the station. She told me you had completed your session.”

“Right. We did.” I felt my lips pull into a smile as I waited to hear Brady apologize for having accused me of making up everything because I couldn’t deal with losing Nick.

But he didn’t and instead said in a firm tone, “It seems Dr. Sokoloff has lost her touch. I’m frankly very surprised to hear that she believes you’re telling the truth when it’s all so… so…” He cleared his throat. “I don’t know what to call it. But I do know that it can’t be true.”

At first, I thought he must be kidding, even though Captain Brady had never been one to joke around about much, and especially not about momentous matters such as this one. Still, he simply couldn’t be serious. How could he think I was inventing everything when a psychologist with a doctorate degree from frigging
Harvard
with years of experience vouched for my sanity?

When he didn’t say anything else, I spoke, “How can you say that with such certainty when Dr. Sokoloff has told you it’s not my brain making up things?”

“How can I believe otherwise? Your claims are just too… too incredible to be true. I’m not sure why Dr. Sokoloff insists you were being sincere. The only explanation I can think of is that she mustn’t be as good as we thought her to be.”

He sighed wearily. “Listen, Gabi, you need to let this go now. I know how hard Nick’s murder has been on you, but it’s time for you to deal with the fact that he’s gone. Whether we find the people who killed him or not, he’s still gone and will remain gone. Creating all these conspiracy theories won’t change that. I’m sorry to be so blunt, but if you could only hear yourself, you’d understand why I’m talking so harshly to you. Someone’s gotta do it.”