Mind Slide (22 page)

“
Mason, you there?”

“
Yeah, it's me.”

“
What do you see?”

He peered into the bookstore only to see the exit door near the back closing shut.

“
Four guys total. Two at the lingerie place, and two here. Looks like the other guy is making a break for it through the back.”

Brian looked up at two of his officers and pointed to the rear of the bookstore.

“
The two at the lingerie shop are long gone. They left my guy there, handcuffed on the floor. He's not hurt, besides a bruised throat. Now we have this nice little gentleman here who's gonna answer some questions for us. Isn't that right?”

The suit said nothing.

“
Let me talk to Kelly.”

Brian handed the phone over. Kelly looked at the crowd that was slowly gathering. People thought it was entertainment, laughing and pointing. Her hands still shook slightly. It was not entertainment to her.

“
Are you alright?” he asked.

“
Me and you, we need to talk.”

Mason ran laps around the police station.

He could run through any wall, listen to any conversation. He still had trouble keeping up with the chaos that was happening.

They kept the man in the suit they arrested in an interrogation room. He didn't say a single word. Didn't shout at any officers, didn't ask for a lawyer, nothing. He had no identification on him.

Kelly sat at another officer's desk and gave a statement, which wasn't much. Mason felt terrible as he sat next to her. It was all he could do not to slide back into his body outside the police station and be with her.

She had nothing to offer. All she could tell police was that some men followed her to the mall for unknown reasons, and Detective Brian Lowdry showed up to save the day.

She left out the part about being on the phone the entire time with Mason.

Brian took a verbal beating from his captain.

Mason stood in the corner of the room. Brian sat across from Captain Johns, his hands locked on the arms of his chair.

Mason had never seen Johns smile. He was a slightly overweight man, his face always red. It always looked liked he would fall over at any second from a heart attack.

He never did like Mason.

Johns looked at the computer monitor in front of him. Mason walked halfway through the desk and glanced sideways to see what he was looking at.

He didn't understand all the cop terms, but it looked like a report of the burglary that happened at Kelly's house.

“
Tell me, Lowdry,” Johns said. “How did we get from a home robbery to you sitting in my office?”

Mason scowled. He hated the way Johns talked to everyone.

“
Kelly Rierson is a friend of a friend, sir.”

“
But you work homicide, right?”

“
Yes, sir.”

“
So, why is your name at the bottom of this report?”

“
Cause I signed it, sir.”

Mason laughed.

Johns' lip twitched.

The phone rang. Mason watched with concern as Johns actually looked nervous. He listened intently for almost a minute, only offering a
yes sir
at the end of the conversation.

“
That was the Chief,” Johns said. “Our guest you arrested last night, cut him loose.”

“
Sir? He was following...no,
stalking
, a woman with a loaded weapon.”

“
Lowdry, the Chief just leaned on me. Who do you think leaned on him? I have no doubt a nice, shiny Fed will be greeting us later, because of you. The safest thing for you to do, to avoid my foot in your ass, is to maybe do your job, solve a murder or two. Is that too much to ask?”

“
Mason.”

It was a female voice. Kelly's voice. Very close.

“
Captain, look-” Brian began.

“
Lowdry, so help me God-”

The argument faded as Mason slid back to his body. He felt the seat of his Jeep under him, the cool morning breeze across his face.

A familiar set of eyes looked into his.

Kelly leaned an arm on the door of his Jeep. She wore the same clothes as the night before, never having a chance to go home.

“
Catching up on your sleep?” she asked.

“
Kell.” He climbed out of the Jeep so he could stand with her on the sidewalk.

Almost a little too fast.

The post mind slide nausea settled in. He leaned against the Jeep while looking down at the ground, and prayed he wouldn't get sick.

Kelly put a hand on his shoulder. “Whoa. Are you okay?”

He nodded and looked up at her. The nausea slowly faded away. “I'm fine, thanks. How are you doing?”

She looked exhausted, with black circles under her eyes. She tried to smile, but didn't pull it off.

“
Well, last night, people were apparently following me all over the place. The police want me to tell them why, but I have no idea. Oh, and my best friend was apparently following me, too. You want to tell me how you did that?”

Mason hesitated. He had no idea what to tell her. It certainly wasn't the time or place for the truth.

“
I didn't exactly follow you.”

She narrowed her eyes.

Mason knew he was in for a hard time. He couldn't help but notice how even though Kelly was tired and angry, she was still beautiful.

“
Bullshit, Mason. You were right there with me, weren't you? In the dressing room, in the bookstore, spying on me with some kind of camera? Did you bug my phone or something?”

“
It's not like that, Kell.”

She held up her hand. “I'm tired, scared, humiliated, confused, hurt. You name it, I feel it. I want to go home and get some sleep. You can try to talk your way out of this later.”

Mason pointed across the street, near the end of the block. “I had your car towed here from the mall, in case you didn't want to ride with me.”

Her features softened a touch. “Oh. Thank you.” She was halfway across the street before turning around and coming back. Mason hoped for a hug. Instead she thrust out the bag she still carried. “I got this for you.”

She didn't bother watching him open it. He held the CD in his hands as she drove down the street without looking at him.

So many things happening. Mason also didn't forget about the scarred bald man at the mall, who could apparently also mind slide.

Still, at that moment, all he could think about was Kelly, and hoping that in the process of protecting her, he didn't destroy what they had.

A limousine pulled up to the curb outside the police station. Mason watched as the man in the suit from the mall left the station and climbed into the passenger's side of the limo. He flashed Mason an angry glare before closing the door.

The limo pulled away. He was surprised when it stopped in the middle of the street and backed up, stopping next to him.

The rear window rolled down.

He kept his mouth clenched shut, and hoped his face didn't betray the emotions rolling through him.

Looking at him from the back of the limo was Mister Suit.

“
Mason Thomas,” he said. “Could I have a word with you?”

The man in charge of his torture project for eleven years. Mason thought he would never see him again when he turned eighteen. The man had every ounce of data he could have about Mason's brain.

Mason wondered how much it killed him to call him by his name, instead of
subject
.

He wanted to get in his Jeep and drive away, but knew Suit probably had answers for him.

The most important question was why were they following Kelly?

Mason circled around the limo and climbed in the back.

Suit tapped on the tinted window separating the back of the limo from the front. They pulled into traffic and toured the city streets.

The man aged well. Still had all of his hair, none of it gray. The suit still fit him perfectly. It was obvious he kept himself in shape.

“
We've never been properly introduced,” Suit said. “You're Mason Thomas.”

“
That's right. And you are?”

He smiled. “I'm the one who made sure you had a roof over your head and three hot meals a day for most of your life. But I'm sure you already knew that.”

“
Ah. So that's what you call it.”

Suit laughed, and looked him up and down. “Wow, Mason. I'm impressed. I really am. Give you a cell phone and a Bluetooth, and you're quite a dangerous person. But you almost got your friend Kelly killed last night. My men weren't following her to hurt her, but protect her.”

“
From who?”

He expected more evasion. He was surprised when Suit opened a folder and pulled out a photo of a man.

“
From him.”

Mason recognized him immediately.

It was a mugshot. He had hair, but it was the same man outside the lingerie shop.

The man who could mind slide. The man who Mason could see, and who could see him.

“
Who is he?”

“
His name is Gabriel. No last name.”

Mason rolled his eyes. With no last name, he was untraceable for a mind slide.

“
That's convenient.”

“
We thought so, too. One of many reasons he was chosen.”

Mason stared at Suit. “Chosen?”

“
Come on now, Mason. In all the time you spent at Yingling, didn't you ever ask yourself
why
? Why did we gather some of the top minds in the country to study you?”

He lifted an eyebrow. “
Study
me?”