Mind Slide (34 page)

Gabriel laughed. “Is that the redheaded chick? Tell her I said hello.”

Mason ignored him. He looked around once again at the lab. He started to get a clearer picture of some of the missing pieces of the mess they were in.

“
I had my lab. I guess this was yours.”

Gabriel extended his arms and spun around. “Welcome to my home for the past five years.”

“
Where are we?”

“
We are in the middle of nowhere in the woods between Maryland and Virginia. You graduated from lab class when you were eighteen, and they wanted to see if they could make someone just like you. I'll be honest, I didn't even know you existed until a few weeks ago. I always thought I was the first.”

Gabriel reached out to grab Mason's arm. His hand pressed into the muscle and bone, like he was simply another object. Mason shouted and jumped back.

“
Hey!”

“
Just wanted to see if I could touch you. Come on, you're not excited about any of this?”

“
Oh, yeah. Overjoyed.”

Gabriel rubbed his hands together and looked around the lab.

“
This brings back a lot of memories. Annie, my favorite little adulterer, used to cook up that Cocktail crap in the corner over there. Doctor Rierson would sit right here, at this desk, and feed me all that nonsense about
being aware
.”

“
What's with the cage apartment over there?”

“
I'm very dangerous, Mason. I didn't used to be. I was a normal guy. I came home from work one day...early, you see. My wife was in our bedroom having sex with her three boyfriends. So, I calmly went into the kitchen, grabbed a knife, and butchered every single one of them. You'd do the same, wouldn't you?”

Mason knew Gabriel couldn't harm him, but he was still nervous. Gabriel was fine for the first few minutes of their talk, but it seemed like he was becoming unstable, very quickly.

“
Anyway,” he continued. “Suit plucked me out of prison. He said if I volunteered for an important project, he could get my sentence reduced. Maybe even acquitted. If they told me they'd be ripping my head open, I would have stayed in prison.”

“
Suit told me you were addicted to the Cocktail.”

Gabriel laughed. “Addicted? Oh yeah, I'm addicted to feeling like shit and knowing I may puke when we get done our little pow-wow here.”

Mason took a breath, ready to ask the most important question there was.

“
Why did you kill Doctor Rierson?”

Gabriel raised an eyebrow. “You don't have any idea of what's
really
happening, do you? You're just running around, chasing your own tail.”

“
We're actually running for our lives.”

“
Eh, well, not from me. Would it make you feel any better if I told you I
didn't
kill Doctor Rierson?”

Mason rolled his eyes. “Oh, let me guess. Suit did it, right?”

“
Nope, not him either.”

Mason said nothing. Gabriel saw the confusion on his face, and simply laughed.

He jumped up in the air and hovered. He flew around the lab in a circle, then next to his old cell, running his hand through the bars. Mason felt guilty, seeing that flying looked so much fun. Gabriel was far better at it than he was.

“
You ready to have your mind blown?”

He landed across from the metal table. Mason wondered if it was the same metal table he spent so much time on.

“
Doctor Albert
really
got killed by a drunk driver.”

Mason opened his mouth, but no words came out for a moment. “I...don't believe you.”

Gabriel jumped above the table and sat with his legs crossed, hovering just an inch above the surface.

“
Mason, my friend. Doctor Albert is the one who let me out of that cage.”

“
Who killed my father?” Kelly said. He felt her squeezing his hand. “Who are you talking to? What is he saying?”

“
Hold on, Kell. Please.”

“
Aww,
Kell
,” Gabriel mocked. “Isn't that cute?”

“
Doc wouldn't do that,” Mason said. “If you're so dangerous, he wouldn't have let you out.”

“
We both know Rierson was a good man. He started feeling guilty. He couldn't stand what he and his fellow doctors were doing to me. So, he let me out on the condition that I go underground, and never be heard from again. I told him I would, of course, but that was a lie. I really did kill every doctor who ever touched me, except for Rierson. He was supposed to go underground, too, and I would have left him alone. But that drunk driver hit him, and he died.”

“
You're crying,” Kelly said. Mason felt her finger trace his cheek. “What's wrong?”

Mason took a deep breath. He wished he could talk to Kelly without Gabriel hearing, but that would have to wait.

“
You're a murderer,” Mason said. “Why should I believe anything you say?”

“
Hey, believe whatever you want. I don't care.
Murderer? I guess I am. But I did save your cop friend's life. He would have died on his kitchen floor if I didn't make the call.”

“Thank you,” Mason whispered quietly. “What do you want with the flash drive?”

Gabriel's eyes went wide. “Ah, and here is where you're gonna have to make a choice. I think you'll figure it out when I give you a clue. You ready? Rierson, he destroyed everything. All the data, I'm guessing all the way back to you. He wiped out all his little fancy servers, his file cabinets, his formula, even the backups. Shit, I've got the last case of Cocktail, besides whatever you have. There is no more. But he put everything on that flash drive.”

Mason lowered his head. “Suit would
kill
to get that back.”

“Exactly. He wants it to keep the project going. I want it, to
destroy
it. The world isn't ready for people like us, Mason. And no one should have their brains messed with the way they did ours.”

Mason was conflicted. Gabriel had killed so many people. He admitted it. Mason remembered the names of every doctor he ever worked with. Did Gabriel kill them all?

Was Gabriel being honest?

He spoke of making a choice.

The only choice that mattered was the one that saved Lisa's life.

“I'm supposed to give Suit the flash drive tomorrow night, in exchange for Lisa.”

“Ah, the cop's wife? Listen. If you do, he'll find someone else to jolt electricity and feed drugs into. And to be honest, he might not just let you walk away. No witnesses, and all that crap. I don't think he'd kill you, because you'll always have value. But your girlfriend, your cop friend and his wife, even their daughter, Dani. They're expendable.”

Mason looked up. It bothered him that Gabriel knew Dani's name.

“Look, I don't have a choice. I can't let them hurt her. I know where she is, but she's guarded in a building. Suit's men are all hanging out there, I'm sure with a lot of guns. It's not like I can just walk in-”

He stopped. Gabriel waited for him to continue. When he didn't, Gabriel spun around in the air.

Mason let the idea roll through his mind. The more he thought about it, the more it sounded like a good idea.

Could it really be that simple?

“You still with me?” Gabriel asked.

Mason looked up at Gabriel. His plan would need help, and he wanted Kelly as far away as possible.

He was unpredictable, but Gabriel fit the bill perfectly.

“If you help me get Lisa back, I'll give you the flash drive.”

Gabriel smirked. “You look like a guy with a plan. You would hand it over? Just like that?”

“Yeah. I don't care about whatever fight you and Suit have going on. I just want my family. I give you the flash drive, and he'll be pissed, but I'll be out of the loop. I'll let the police deal with him after that.”

Gabriel extended his legs and pushed them through the metal table, touching the floor once again. He stepped closer to Mason.

“Bring the flash drive. You won't get any help without the flash drive.”

“Done. Call my phone in five minutes.”

Gabriel nodded, then closed his eyes. He slowly faded away. It was the final act of any mind slide, but Mason had never seen it before.

He did the same, and felt his mind reconnect with his body.

*****

Mason opened his eyes and looked into Kelly's beautiful face. She was on her knees, looming over him with a look of concern. Her fingers were laced between his.

He tried to sit up, and immediately felt his stomach doing cartwheels. He groaned and laid back down. Kelly helped ease him back into bed, then ran to the bathroom in a flash. She emerged with a wet, damp cloth, and gently laid it across his head. He looked up at her gratefully.

“Thanks.”

“That was the strangest thing I've ever seen,” she said. She let out a deep breath and sat on the bed next to him. She put a hand on his leg. “You were talking to someone? What did they say?”

He would have to catch Kelly up on everything later. But there was one important thing she should know.

“I was wrong,” he said. “Your father wasn't murdered. He died trying to do a good thing.”

She closed her eyes and squeezed his leg. A single tear rolled down her cheek. It was a relief to at least learn that much.

“You're planning something. What are we doing?”

“You're staying here,” he said. “I'm gonna go to Old Patapsco Park. I think I can get Lisa back.”

“You're not leaving without me.”

He slowly sat up in bed, the nausea finally passing. He took both her hands in his.

“Kell, you have to stay here. If things go like I plan, I'll be back in no time at all.”

“And if they
don't
go like you plan?”

“Then you won't have to worry about getting ready for any of our dates.”

“That's not funny.”

She stood up and paced back and forth. He grabbed his keys from the dresser and made sure the flash drive was still in his pocket.

“I'm coming with you.”

“Don't make me tie you to the bed.”

She smiled for a moment, then flashed her angry glare again.

“Believe me, for what I have in mind, you won't be able to help. And please don't get mad at this, but you would probably get in the way.”

She put her hands on her hips and stared at him. Her cheeks were flushed, her eyes wide. She was sexy when she was angry. It was a look he hoped to see many more times.

“I hope you know what you're doing,” she said. “Hurry back.”

He turned to leave. He had a hand on the doorknob when he felt a hand on his shoulder. Kelly turned him around and threw herself at him. Her lips found his. She pushed him against the door and wrapped her arms around him. She meant for the kiss to be gentle, but terrible thoughts made their way into her head. She fought against the idea of never seeing him again.

Mason was caught off guard, but it didn't take long to get into
any
kiss with Kelly. After a minute of bordering on making out against the door, he came up for air.

“Please be careful,” she said.

“Don't worry, “ he said with a smile. “They won't see me coming.”

He gave her one more small kiss before leaving the hotel room.

He was halfway across the street, heading to the parking garage, when his cell phone rang.

“It's me,” Gabriel said. “You don't know Suit's men like I do. I'm a killer, yeah. But they'll kill too just to get the information you have in your pocket.”