The Spy Is Cast (37 page)

“Could you please
close the door?” I asked.

“Of course.” She got
up and swung the door shut.

I sighed. This was
going to get complicated. And I didn’t have time to spare.

I straightened up and
looked her in the eye. “I need to tell you something in strictest
confidence.”

“You can tell me
anything at all,” she soothed.

“The man from the
parking lot. His name is John Kane. He’s an undercover police
officer. He spoke with some of your officers yesterday. He’s my
partner. It’s essential that everyone here thinks that he attacked
me.”

Her face hardened with
suspicion. Shit, I knew this was going to get complicated.

“Please go and talk to
him. He can give you more information, and refer you up his chain
of command if necessary,” I pleaded.

“You’re serious?” she
demanded.

“Deadly serious. We
are in the middle of a time-critical operation. I need you to
pretend to arrest him and take him away. He’ll be able to take over
our operation externally. I need to stay here. Talk to him.
Please!” I gazed at her imploringly.

“But…” She studied me.
“You’re in no shape…”

“Please! Hurry! Don’t
let anyone hear you talking to him,” I begged.

“This is the weirdest…
Okay,” she said. “You stay here until I get back. And I mean that.
I will charge you with resisting arrest if you don’t.”

“Okay. Thank you.
Hurry!” I urged.

She stepped
reluctantly out the door and closed it behind her.

Unable to sit still, I
went to the sink and washed my face. Then I sat down on the toilet
again and vibrated with nerves. My mind raced, turning over panicky
ideas. Time was slipping away. As I looked at my watch for the
umpteenth time, an appalling thought drove through my brain.

What if they had
tortured the secret of the watch out of Hellhound?

I snatched it off and
began to root through the contents of my waist pouch.

Several minutes later,
there was a tap at the door. “Ma’am, may I come in?” A female
voice. Finally.

“Yes.”

The female police
officer slipped through the door and closed it again behind her.
She frowned down at me. “We’ve verified your story. I passed your
message on to your partner. He says you need to come with us, too.
He was adamant.”

“He’s missing a
critical piece of information. I have to stay here. And I need him
on the outside.” I rummaged in my waist pouch and extracted a pen
and a scrap of paper. “Please tell him I’m staying, no negotiation.
And get him out of here immediately. Cuff him and drag him out if
necessary. And please give him this.”

I scribbled on the
paper. ‘Op blown. Hellhound captured. Go to Plan B. Bring Spider
ASAP.’

I knew they wouldn’t
implement Plan B just to retrieve Arnie. But they’d sure as hell
implement it if I was still in here with the network key.

I glanced blindly at
my watch again, wondering how long it would take for the
reinforcements to show up. The policewoman had left, presumably
taking Kane with her. He should be safely off the premises by
now.

I ducked compulsively
into the network again, checking the dead sync routine. I breathed
a sigh of relief when I found it just the way I’d left it. A quick
check into the sims revealed that Hellhound was still alone, and I
resisted the impulse to go to him again. I couldn’t help him any
more than I had already, and I didn’t dare spend any additional
time in the network without knowing what was happening to my
physical body.

Back through the
portal. I thrashed as silently as possible on the bathroom floor.
I’d taken the precaution of lying down this time, and at least I
didn’t throw up again.

I staggered to my feet
and dabbed the involuntary tears from my eyes. I needed to find out
where Arnie was being held. I ran my brush through my hair and
stepped out into the hallway.

Maria was waiting
outside along with the young guard. Her expression crumbled into
sympathy when she saw me. “You poor thing!” she exclaimed. “What a
horrible experience. Would you like to lie down in the guest house
for a while?”

I was surprised she
was being cordial after catching me with her husband, but clearly
I’d misjudged her. And the guest house was exactly where I wanted
to be. That was where Kane had been held. Maybe Hellhound was
there, too.

“Thank you,” I
quavered. “That would be wonderful.”

Maria and the young
guard ushered me slowly down to the guest house. “She just needs to
lie down for a while,” Maria assured the doorman. He nodded and
held the door, concern written on his face.

They guided me into
one of the guest rooms, and I recognized the man I’d seen in the
security sim as he stood outside one of the other rooms. That had
to be where Hellhound was. It was the only guarded room.

Inside the luxurious
chamber, Maria dismissed the young guard. “Go ahead and lie down,”
she encouraged kindly.

I lowered myself to
the bed, and she smoothed my hair away from my face and spread a
blanket over me. I closed my eyes, feigning exhaustion and watching
through the crack in my lashes.

“Just rest,” she
whispered as she vanished.

Vanished?

Oh,
shit!

I slipped my hand
under the pillow, concentrating on making it insubstantial. My hand
slipped through the bed like mist.

She’d put me into a
sim.

Heart hammering, I
created a construct of myself to occupy the bed and whisked
invisibly through the wall of the sim. I stepped out the portal and
back into my physical body, bracing for the pain.

It didn’t come.

I breathed a slow sigh
when I realized she must have attached one of the re-engineered
fobs to me when she brushed my hair back. Nice to avoid the
pain.

Sudden adrenaline
jolted through me when I realized I’d just made two deadly
errors.

One was trusting
Maria. Obviously.

The other was leaving
the sim. With nobody else present in the sim to maintain it with
their expectations, my construct had vanished at the same time I
left.

I peered frantically
through my lashes and realized Maria had left the physical room. I
leaped to my feet and peeked out the door in time to see her vanish
into the guarded room across the hall. I flung myself back onto the
bed, and back into the sim.

Please God, don’t let
them notice I’d been gone.

Maria tapped on the
simulated door and came in. “Just before you rest, there’s
something I need to show you,” she said as she took my arm and
pulled me to my feet.

“Can’t I just rest for
a minute?” I begged. “I’m exhausted.”

“Soon,” she promised
as she towed me out into the hallway. When we approached the other
guest room, I looked into the guard’s wooden face and brushed
against him. I’d imagined my arm insubstantial, and as I’d
expected, it went right through him.

A construct. Good.

I knew what I’d see
when she opened the door, but the sight of Arnie’s maimed hands
made me gag again anyway.

Maria remained
expressionless.

“Oh, my God!” I
choked. “What have you done to this poor man?” Hellhound’s eyes
widened as his head snapped around.

“Don’t pretend you
don’t know him,” Maria said. She pressed a button on the computer
in the corner, and the screen lit up to show footage of Hellhound
and me cuddled together at the side of the road. Maria’s lips
twisted into a sardonic smile while she watched us fondling each
other.

“Now,” she said as she
pointed a small snub-nosed revolver at my head. “One of you is
going to tell me what I want to know. Move.”

She herded me to a
chair and I sat with a sense of inevitability while she bound my
arms and legs to it. Hellhound hadn’t spoken, but his eyes were
anguished as he watched.

Maria leaned casually
on my shoulder. “Your lover here has been very unhelpful. He hasn’t
said a single word.”

I shuddered at what it
had cost him to remain silent, and she smiled again. “So I think
I’ll kill two birds with one stone. So to speak. Since he’s so
resistant to my persuasion, we’ll see how you do.” She turned a
malevolent smile on Hellhound. “And he can watch.”

“No,” Hellhound
croaked.

Her smile turned
predatory. “He speaks,” she cooed. “How nice.” She stepped closer
to him. “What would you like to tell me?”

Hellhound’s tense
shoulders squared. “Let her go, and I’ll tell ya what ya wanna
know. But ya harm one hair on her head, and I’ll never tell
ya.”

“Oh, you’ll tell me
anyway,” she said silkily.

“This ain’t my first
dance, lady,” Hellhound rasped. “Let her go free, and ya get your
information. Otherwise, nothin’. It’s the only deal you’re gonna
get.”

Maria picked up a
butterfly knife from the table and expertly one-handed it open in a
blur of movement. She stepped around behind me, and I resisted the
urge to twist around in my seat to keep her in sight.

She ran her fingers
through my hair and pulled it back into a ponytail. “Not a hair on
her head, you say?”

“Not if ya want what I
know.”

A sudden movement
behind me, and my head jerked. Maria held up the rope of my severed
hair tauntingly between us. “Oops.” She flung the bundle of hair to
the floor.

Hellhound’s shoulders
turned to stone, his face shutting down except for the rippling
muscles in his jaw. He stared straight ahead, and I shuddered
again.

“She’s not so
attractive now, is she?” Maria inquired. “She’s going to be a lot
less attractive when I’m done. Is there anything you want to tell
me?”

Enough was enough. I
filled a construct in my place in the chair as I flitted invisibly
up to the ceiling. I threw my voice down to Hellhound’s ear. “It’s
not real,” I whispered. “Remember, it’s not real.”

The construct screamed
as the knife began its work.

Time crept by while
the construct that looked like me sobbed and begged hysterically
between gut-wrenching screams. Blood slicked the floor and Maria’s
hands.

Hellhound’s tormented
eyes burned across the room while I whispered denial in his ear. He
hadn’t moved or spoken. His rigid muscles vibrated finely, steel
cables stretched past their limit.

Finally, Maria snapped
the knife shut and glared at Hellhound. “You’re a heartless
bastard. Fine. Maybe you think this isn’t real. Here’s another
option.”

She drew her revolver
and pointed it at the construct’s hanging head. “If I kill her
here, she’ll die in real life. An unexplained heart attack. So
sad.” She cocked the hammer. “Say goodbye.”

Hellhound’s impassive
expression changed to horror, and I knew he’d suddenly made the
connection with the earlier captives’ heart attacks. My mind raced
furiously. If she killed me in the sim, she’d expect me to be dead
in real life. When she went to retrieve my body, she’d find me
alive. Maybe I could overpower her?

“No!” Hellhound’s
hoarse voice interrupted my thoughts. He gazed at the mutilated
construct. “It ain’t worth it, darlin’,” he grated. “I’m
sorry.”

“Arnie, don’t!” The
construct and I spoke simultaneously, one in his ear and the other
across the room.

“It’s in her watch,”
he said roughly. “Don’t kill her.”

“Thank you.” Maria
smiled. And pulled the trigger.

“NO!” Hellhound’s
raw-throated bellow almost drowned out the sound of the shot. The
construct’s ravaged body went limp. I sprang for the portal.

I popped into my body
painlessly and muttered a three-word prayer as I fumbled the watch
off my wrist. Maria had to leave the network, exit Hellhound’s
room, and walk across to mine. I had seconds to spare.

I yanked the watch
free and pried off the backing as footsteps sounded in the hallway.
I had barely enough time to drop the eviscerated watch beside me on
the bed and resume my position. Maria came briskly into the room
while I held my breath and watched through my lashes.

She froze at the sight
of the open wristwatch. “Goddammit!” She wheeled and dashed out of
the room. I heard her shout in the hallway. “Someone’s here! Search
everything! Go, go!”

I heard running feet,
followed by silence.

I rolled off the bed
and peeked shakily out the door. The hallway was abandoned, and I
dashed across the open space into Hellhound’s room. I locked the
door from the inside and shoved a dresser in front of it. Where the
hell was Plan B? What if they weren’t coming?

I shook myself. It
didn’t matter. One way or another, we had to get out. Our cover was
completely destroyed.

I approached
Hellhound’s chair carefully. I didn’t quite know how to handle
this. I knew firsthand how difficult it was to deal with the
disorientation in the first few minutes after leaving such a
horrible sim. Worse still, he didn’t even know it was a sim. And I
couldn’t explain.

I braced myself and
pulled the tiny electronic device off the back of his neck. His
eyes snapped open, unfocused. He glanced at me, and then turned to
stare straight ahead again. I took his face in my hands and looked
into his haunted eyes.

“Arnie,” I said
softly. “It’s over. This is real. It’s okay.”

He didn’t respond, and
I stroked his face and kissed him. “This is real. I need you to
wake up and be with me now. We’re not safe yet. We need to get
away.”

He slowly pulled away
from my grasp and looked down at his undamaged hands, his face like
iron. His fingers moved, and his shoulders bunched and then
released. When he looked up at me, his face was still hard, his
eyes remote.

“If it’s really you,
why’m I still tied up?”

“I’m sorry, I’ll cut
you loose. I was afraid you’d freak out.” I pulled out my knife and
freed his legs. When the blade approached his hand, he stiffened
almost imperceptibly, and I moved slowly and carefully to cut the
tie. Then I reversed the knife and placed the handle gently in his
free hand. I wouldn’t make him suffer that fear again.