Jezebel's Ladder (17 page)

****

As the sounds of battle
intensified, so did the speed of Daniel’s thrusting. The months of exercises
had built his endurance. Now Trina was the one chanting, “More.”

When he felt himself on the
precipice, he tried to hold back longer. He wanted to share the mind-blowing
experience with his partner. Then, he heard the banging on the door followed by
the angry roar of a power saw. He knew of only one way they could be together.
Daniel grabbed the ribbon from Olive the reindeer’s collar. The tingle from the
Collective Unconscious page traveled up his arm. He kept the page there to
boost his abilities and for emergencies. Buddy once used it as a link to talk
to him in a coma. This application was only slightly different.

He placed the page at the base of
Trina’s spine. After overcoming the initial shock, he was able to open himself
up to her, turning the alien fabric into a conduit to broadcast everything he
was feeling, physically and emotionally. Seeing the look of pleasure on her
face pushed him over the edge. It was the highest rollercoaster he’d ever
ridden. Then the Nova filled both their senses.

They were still locked in bliss
when the Ladder rescue team reached them. Neither was responding.

When they reached Ward Seven,
Crusader leaned over from his bed. A mass of bandages and bruises, Crusader’s
range of motion was limited by an IV. “Oobie’s in theta and somehow dragged her
with. Get Butterfly.”

When they finally located Jez at
2:00 a.m., she was getting her right hand bandaged by an angry Dr. Poldark. The
guard wheeled her between Crusader’s and Daniel’s beds.

Sizing up the situation, she shook
her head. “We changed all our hypnotic keys after my capture. I don’t have his
new key and neither does the Doc. We might tell someone accidentally, due to
the Ethics page. The only person who can revive him is Benny.”

“Why’s the kid making that face?”

She swallowed. “Una, Nena number
one, told him that no matter who won, at least one of them would die. Daniel
couldn’t bear that, so he wanted to relive their last moment in a loop till
someone killed them both. I felt the flare from a distance when it happened, but
now I can see them like a single star, glowing, entwined. It’s beautiful.”
After a pause, she asked, “How long has it been?”

Crusader shrugged, “Six hours.”

“Oh, that could cause permanent
damage,” she replied.

“A six-hour orgasm? It might make
everyday life pale in comparison, but I think Oobie can take it,” he chuckled.

“No, you have to operate on Trina
immediately, an emergency appendectomy. The Collective Unconscious page is
fatal to women otherwise. Now those two kids are linked at such a deep level
that if we don’t save her, we could lose them both.”

Crusader shook his head in
exasperation, giving her a glimpse of the bandage taped to the far side of his
head. “Living with you is like solving that fox, goose, and grain problem every
day.”

She laughed. “Try being in my
shoes, uh, casts. What do we tell the cops?”

“Handled,” said Crusader, handing
her a press release. “It’s already on the wire, and the east coast is showing
footage on the morning news. A meth gang tried to steal a large quantity of
chemicals we purchased for our legitimate space program. Our guards caught them
in the act, and the chemical tanker exploded in the crossfire, damaging several
nearby buildings.”

She winced. “No one is going to
believe that.”

Crusader smiled. “We just happened
to have several NCIS officers among the first responders. It’s the official
story. By the way, you owe Midas Project a big favor.”

Every ambulance in the district had
already been sent out, so Poldark had to use his own car to transport the girl.
Before he would leave the ward, Poldark insisted, “Put some clothes on her. Do
you know what this is going to look like?”

“Put some makeup on those freckles
before someone sees them. Have Benny convince the ER people,” she said.

“Where is he?” Crusader complained.

“You go with Trina, I’ll find my
boyfriend,” she said.
No rest for the wicked
, she thought.

After coming up empty for two hours, Jez took a map with her
to visit Ragnar. “We’ve stopped the zombies,” she announced.

He nodded, transfixed by Daniel’s
radiant aura.

“We might be able to help you
organize your problems if you’re interested,” she offered.

When he didn’t answer, she said, “Trina
and Daniel are dying.”

“Triniel fades? No.”

“The people that can help them have
been reading pages tonight. If you could point out the direction of the flares…”

He grabbed the map and circled a
five-block region in blue crayon. Only then did she notice the large, winged pattern
Ragnar had drawn on the wall. He left her to write the name Triniel under his
angel.

Even with this help, it took till
6:00 a.m. to track her emergency seed-group to the right hotel. Then, it took
another hour for Claudette to push her past the right door. “In there,” Jez
said. “Ten of them.”

Tan answered the door. “Please come
in.”

“Room service already? Great, I’m
starved,” Benny said, walking out of the bathroom in just a robe. “How the
blazes did you find me? Even the paparazzi couldn’t follow me.”

“I could find you with my eyes
closed,” Jez said.

Benny caressed her face with his
finger tips. “I’m so relieved. Tell me what happened with your hand, the whole
assault.”

“I’ll tell you on the way to the
hospital.”

“What’s all this?” asked Claudette,
surprised by two adjoining suites filled with high-tech displays.

Benny grinned as he slipped on
pants. “Welcome to the Stairway Project, the broader-based sequel to the
Ladder. You know, like ‘Stairway to Heaven.’”

“Yes, the greatest rock ballad of
all time,” both women echoed at the same time. Tan actually laughed.

As Benny slipped a baggy sweatshirt
over his casts, he said, “Mock me all you like. My project, my name.”

While he put on Velcro-strapped
sneakers, Jez teased, “I bet all the agents got code names from Zeppelin songs.”

“No one wanted to be Lemon Tree,”
Claudette countered, cackling hysterically for too long.

Benny stopped smiling. “Are you
okay?”

“No, darlin’. It’s been a long
night. Do you happen to have a spare bed?”

“Of course. Tan, show her mine.
Come on, Jez. If I only wear one sling, maybe I can push you,” Benny offered.

Tan sighed. “I will push Miss
Jezebel. You moon over her as a suitor should.” He passed Starlet off to Dr.
Weiss.

Jez squinted at her boyfriend. “Your
aura is different, all swirly.”

“Yeah. That’s how I feel today.
Ideal Planets won’t knock you out like the other pages, but I sat there for
hours and went ‘Wow’ to everything. I must have watched the CD player spin for
twenty minutes. The new rules apply to all circular motion. I couldn’t walk a
straight line. Your friend Kyle laughed his ass off at me. It was like the
first time I smoked pot, but I can explain it to anyone. This will make
recruiting a lot easier.”

Jez, tired of the science report,
grabbed him by the front of his sweatshirt and pulled him down into a kiss.

“Wow,” he replied.

“About time you stopped talking,”
she complained.

Tan interrupted a follow-up kiss
when he brought back a folded blanket to drape over Jez’s legs. When Benny
raised an eyebrow, the kick boxer said, “In my country, when police see a blood-spattered
chair, they ask embarrassing questions.”

“Okay, that would be a good place
to start,” said Benny as they walked to the elevator.

Instead, she led with a summary. “95
percent of our LA people were wounded or drugged in some way. The drugged ones should
be fine already. The numbers aren’t in yet—some are in critical care—but I
expect half the wounded people to end up dead or permanently disabled. Odd as
it sounds, Crusader says we won. We got them to fully commit, and Wannamaker
has nothing left. The Fossils are finished. Dirt Bag finally arrived and is
heading the clean-up efforts.”

“What do
you
say?” Tan
asked.

“If I’d have found even a bottle of
mouthwash in that building, I’d have drained it.” Her voice cracked a little,
and her shoulders slumped. “We survived, but the only thing keeping me from
finding a bar right now is the boy who adopted me as his sister wasting away in
a coma. My roommate is going to die unless you can convince a surgeon to cut
out a perfectly healthy appendix in the next few hours. I should have prepared
more.”

“If you’d left Fortune in charge,
all of us would be dead,” Benny countered.

In the car, on the way to the ER,
she related everything that they had reconstructed about the timeline. Telling
the story helped her to cope with the enormous weight in a small way. When she
was finished, Tan looked at Benny expectantly. The star was speechless, a
rarity.

His friend was more decisive. “Miss
Jezebel, you obviously no longer have a home. We have many guest rooms. I would
be insulted if you did not stay with us until you can walk again.”

She blushed at the implications. “I’m
afraid Mr. Hollis’s PR man or minister might have something to say about that.”

Benny hurried to elaborate. “We’ll
have strict rules. You can sleep on Tan’s side of the house. No visiting each
other’s rooms, common areas only. We can make sure there’s always a chaperone.
No touching places clothes normally cover. We’ll lock the door at bedtime.”

“Any other rules for the dance? Are
you sure you want me there?” Jez asked, amused.

“This is for your protection,”
Benny said earnestly. “You can use your abilities to find me anywhere, but if I
lose you again, I might never…”

She silenced him with a kiss and
hugged him tightly.

Soon, she was napping on his lap
again.

After a period of silence, he asked
Tan, “Could you dial my pastor for me?” His friend had confiscated the cell
phone for earlier excesses.

The Asian gentleman didn’t move. “Marriage
classes are Tuesday night at the meeting hall. You have five days, but tell
your mother soon. She will already be hurt enough knowing that your father and
all your friends have met her first. If you tell her while you are still
wearing the slings, you will have an advantage. She will be in Palm Springs golfing next week if you want to arrange an ‘accidental’ meeting.”

“Why does everybody just assume
we’re going to…?” Benny couldn’t even finish the sentence. He gazed down at her
face. He had slept with dozens of women, but he had never felt so much like a
man as when this
one
trusted him. He sighed. “I can sell a snow cone to
an Eskimo, but I’m not talking my way out of this.”

****

Benny got Trina admitted as a
victim of the gang attack. They would even schedule a surgery for that day.
However, the hospital was adamant that the girl herself or next of kin would
have to sign the release.

They left the necessary paperwork
in her private room, and Jez started filling it out. “In addition to the
suicide note, maybe we should have applicants fill out a medical power of
attorney. It might be more practical. When we called the emergency phone number
she wrote on her application, it was no longer in service. Nena’s whole life
was one, big cover story.”

“I’m sorry. I’m off-balance and
tired. Maybe if I slept a few hours to recharge,” Benny apologized.

She shook her head. “The kids are
fusing together tighter the longer we wait. It’s been twelve hours. In eight
more, we won’t be able to separate them at all. Go wake up Daniel.”

“I can stay with Miss Jezebel,” Tan
offered.

“No, keep Mr. Wow out of trouble,”
Jez said, indicating her boyfriend. “No one is going to bother us here.”

Benny kissed her goodbye and
hurried back to Ward Seven. Jez answered all the hospital’s questions in
triplicate and waited. When she saw the girl’s energy start to fade, the former
head of Eye Corps put her pen on the signature line. Forging a name would save
a life. No one would care. But try as she might, she couldn’t get the pen to
move.

Jez shrieked in frustration as she
pushed in vain. Her efforts only opened a fresh nose bleed. She roared and
smashed the recalcitrant fountain pen against the wall. Holding Trina’s hand,
she spoke to her, trying to coax her back. However, Jez couldn’t reach her
without the proper page.

When someone shoved a pistol into
her neck, she said, “Don’t shoot, you’ll hurt the girl.”

“You’ll make a good mom some day;
you’ve got instincts for it. Get out of field work while you can,” Sedna said,
backing up without lowering the weapon. She was wearing a nurse’s uniform.

“I’m looking forward to a boring
desk job with lots of math.” Pressing her luck, Jez grabbed the stack of
paperwork and shoved it toward the clone. “Sign this consent form. Your sister
needs help immediately. She’s fading. I tried to sign but couldn’t.” She nodded
to the stain on the wall.

“Promise not to call for help or
attack me?” the killer asked.

“Yes.”

Sedna put away her pistol and
accepted the forms. “How do I know you’re not going to slap her with Ethics for
questioning?”

Jez winced. She had been bugged
during the assault. “She would have to volunteer. We’ve never seen her kill
anyone, and I’m not a judge any more.”

Sedna signed as Nena Horvath. “Do
you hate me?”

“I was never your enemy.”

“That doesn’t answer the question.”

“I once fed a tiger in Vegas.
Talking to you is kind of like that. I respect you, but you scare the bejesus
out of me.”

“I like that image; I’ll add that
to my new list of titles: Tiger of the Moonlight, very Blake.”

“What do I call you?”

“I am the goddess Sedna,” the clone
said boldly. Shifting gears, she added, “Una was the one who tried to seduce
Benny, not Trina.”

Jez blinked. “He hadn’t mentioned
that incident.”

“Don’t worry, he passed. If she’d
gotten him alone, she had orders to cap him.”

“I’ll be sure to relay the object
lesson,” the woman in the wheelchair said, trying to remain calm.

“I appreciate what you’re doing for
Trina. Why?”

“I still see us as family in a
twisted way. Even if I didn’t, I’d help her for Daniel’s sake.”

Sedna nodded. “Promise to continue
taking care of her like a sister and our feud is over. I won’t come after you
or Hollis again.”

“Done,” Jez responded without
hesitation. “Could I extend that immunity to Fortune?”

“What would possibly convince me to
leave him untouched?”

“Elias is going to drop dead on his
own in three to six years. Claudette gets 20 percent of his empire by their
business contract. Even though he’s rich now, as his sole heir, Daniel gets the
remaining billion. Since they’ve been merged in bliss for the last twelve
hours, that boy would give Trina anything she wanted for the rest of her life.
Hell, he probably would have even before the sex.” Jez raised a finger. “But,
if there is any hint of foul play, the police might suspect Trina of the
murder.”

Sedna laughed loudly. Jez could
smell the expensive Scotch on her breath from a few feet away. “You have been
the most entertaining roommate ever.”

Glancing at her sister’s chart,
Sedna said, “For pregnant on Trina’s chart, you put a question mark?”

“The sex was unprotected. If there
were a child, I’d want her doctors to know, to protect it.”

The assassin shook her head, anger
and alcohol exaggerating her actions. “It’ll never happen. Sam harvested all
our ovaries years ago in an effort to continue his clone project for another
generation. He was never able to find the right balance for his boys.”

Jez made an O with her mouth. “I’m
so sorry.”

“Don’t worry; I cut the bastard
open today and took parts out while he watched so he’d know how it feels.” The
memory seemed particularly difficult for her. “Tell Trina that Sam won’t ever
threaten her again.”

“I guess that means you can give up
being a killer.”

“I need to make a living somehow,
and my skill set is fairly specialized. Don’t worry; I’ve landed on my feet
with another employer.”

“You don’t have to work for
anyone
,
ever again,” Jez explained. “Wannamaker was worth in excess of 143 million
dollars.” When the assassin stared at her blankly, she continued. “I thought
you all knew. Horvath, your cover name, was his mother’s maiden name. He wanted
to fill the world with his image. Since Seth is dead and we’re taking care of
Trina, his estate is all yours. You’ll have no trouble proving paternity. I’m
sure he was the male donor for your experiment.”

Sedna, Tiger of the Moonlight,
retched over the trash can when she heard the news. Jez held her hair back so
it wouldn’t get matted with vomit.

****

After the surgery started, Sedna
fled. She explained that there could never be two Nenas together in front of
witnesses. Jez called Benny immediately for an update. He sounded frustrated. “Daniel
won’t come back to his body unless Trina goes back to hers, but she’s too
afraid.”

Jez debated how much to share over
an unsecured line. “Tell her that her last remaining sister has killed Sam.
We’ve made a truce—I’ve promised to treat Trina as my own family, and nobody on
our side dies. The safe word is Appaloosa.”

Benny coughed, choking on the water
he had been sipping. “What?”

“I’ll tell you all the details
tonight when we get home,” she promised. “Bring Daniel by as soon as you can.
Her operation should be done by then. Tell him he can kiss her awake, just like
in the fairytale.”

He was still coughing when they
hung up. Even more surprising than the news about the assassin had been the
rush he’d experienced when she’d casually said “home.” Hearing her say the
simple word had given it a new dimension.