TrackingDesire (16 page)

Liv watched her best friend mumble under her breath as she
disabled the security system of Bell and Turnball’s private labs.

“How the hell am I supposed to beat my personal best with
only half a day’s prep work?” she grumbled good-naturedly. “I’ll be lucky to
crack two minutes with so little time to prepare. I refuse to continue to work
under this sort of pressure and constrictions.”

A light turned from red to green, the security box beeped
and unlocked. Liv looked at her watch. “A minute and forty-five seconds,” she
declared. “I’m impressed—that’s almost your personal best for this system.”

Kelly brushed a short brown lock of hair out of her eyes as
she turned to grin at Liv. The friends exchanged a quick high-five. Depressing
the handle, Kelly opened the door and turned to look at the rest of them.

“Okay, Matt and I will go in first and do a quick circuit to
make sure everything’s switched off and nothing has been missed,” Kelly said.
“You two can follow us, but don’t do anything until after we’re certain we’re
in the clear.”

Liv and Julian nodded. Kelly pulled the door open so she and
Matt could enter and do a sweep. Julian stuck close to Liv as they followed a
few paces behind. Slowly, in a brisk, circular, room-by-room manner, Matt and
Kelly entered, searched and cleared each area as safe.

As they got closer to the section of the laboratory where
Liv had seen and sensed the antidote, her heart beat faster and she became more
and more convinced something wasn’t right. Even though she tried to convince
herself it was her imagination, or nerves, her instincts warned her that
something truly was not as it should be.

By the time Matt and Kelly entered one of the final sections
of the laboratory, her nerves were drawn tight and she was biting down on her
lower lip to keep herself from calling out and warning her best friend.
Stop
being such a fool
, she chided herself.
You aren’t a Seer, you’re just
nervous. Maybe you really aren’t cut out for this at all.

“Hey!” Matt called sharply.

Liv froze, confused for a moment until she realized he
couldn’t read her mind and had obviously been caught up by something else.

“You! Hands in the air, where I can see them. Right now,”
Matt continued, his voice commanding and hard.

“Don’t shoot,” a plaintive voice sounded in reply. “I have
permission to be here. There’s a paper there on the work bench. The other
researchers have gone home but I wanted to check their calculations. I’m
allowed to be here. You’re with security, I presume? Check it. The paper is
signed by Dr. Mason.”

Liv hurried forward and laid a hand on Matt’s arm. He and
Julian had pulled black handguns from somewhere. They pointed them directly at
the short, slightly round man standing near the doorway to the green laboratory
where the antidote should be.

“I knew something was up,” Liv murmured, half to herself and
half to Matt. “Let me see if I can handle this.”

“Excuse me, sir, what’s your name?” she asked in a soft but
firm voice.

The man swallowed hard. He was sweating.

Liv indicated with her hand that Matt and Julian should
lower their guns. It took a moment but first Matt, then far more reluctantly
Julian, did as she wished. She noted that neither man re-holstered his weapon,
but figured it was as good as she would get until the situation resolved
itself.

“Sit down, Mr…” Liv raised an eyebrow in inquiry, waiting.

Hastily, the wizard rushed to reply. “Forrester,” he
supplied as he perched nervously on one of the chairs. “Marshall Forrester. I
really am allowed here, if you’ll just look—”

“That’s not what we’re interested in, Mr. Forrester,” Liv
interrupted him. “Now, what calculations are you wanting to go over?”

The man appeared so earnest and nervous that she couldn’t
believe he was involved in something as illicit as Jolt. But at the same time,
Liv realized it could be the perfect cover—or, like Dr. Mason, Forrester might
be utterly unaware he was being used. She tapped her foot impatiently to
further unsettle the man. He was sweating so much he had to wipe his face with
his hands. A frisson of pity stirred in Liv’s chest, but she squashed it,
determined not to be taken in by an honest face and a good acting job.

“I really don’t think—” the man began.

Liv decided to once again pull out the big guns. “Do you
know who we are, Mr. Forrester? We’re with the Enforcers. And you’ve found
yourself right in the middle of a drug investigation. Now. We could take those
notes, take the samples you’re poring so assiduously over, confiscate them all
and close this lab down until our auditors have gone over every single piece of
paper—a task which would likely take years, if not decades.” Liv didn’t bat an
eye as he cried out in dismay. “Or you could answer a few fairly simple
questions for us and we can decide whether there might be a compromise we could
reach to suit everyone here.”

“Oh, please don’t confiscate everything.
Please
. I’ll
do whatever you want. Answer any questions you have. Just tell me what to say,”
Forrester pleaded with her.

Puzzled, Liv cast curious glances at Kelly, Matt and lastly
Julian. Each of them shrugged their shoulders, not understanding his vehemence
either. Liv looked a little more kindly upon the man and leaned against the
bench he was sitting in front of.

“Was it you who arranged for the antidote to be stolen?” she
asked gently.

Forrester sent her a look of pure, genuine fear and she knew
in that instant that she had guessed correctly.

“We can’t help you if you don’t explain anything to us,” she
prodded him in a soft tone.

Tears sprang into the man’s eyes and Liv felt her heart stir
in her chest. Whatever pressure this man was under, she knew it had to be
nearly overwhelming.

“I’m a wizard,” he choked, struggling to contain his sobs.
“But I fell in love and married a human woman almost twenty-five years ago. We
have three gorgeous girls, but our youngest…she’s always been so curious, and
so devastated she didn’t inherent any of my magical ability. Eight weeks ago,
when she was offered a drug that her friends insisted would
give
her
magical powers and enhance whatever latent power she already had, she jumped at
it.”

Liv felt her heart break and didn’t need to look around her
to know the others would be feeling something similar.

“I tore through every single contact I had ever made in the
magical world,” Forrester continued. “I called in every favor owed to my family
and quite a few that
weren’t
owed. Eventually someone gave me the name
of this laboratory, said they were fiddling with essences and distilling magic
into non-sentient items. After a little more digging I became convinced the
knowledge that had been used to create Jolt had come from here.

“I lured Mason with grant money for a research project,”
Forrester explained. “He snapped it up hungrily. I was planning on destroying
the lab, but then one day while I was here supposedly looking over the
contracts and terms of agreement for the grant money, I heard about a possible
antidote.”

Forrester’s gaze flickered nervously from Liv to the others,
meeting each of their eyes in turn. Distress rolled from his every action in
waves.

“Miss, I don’t know if you have kids or can even imagine
what I’m feeling right now,” Forrester continued. “My daughter’s body and mind,
even as we speak, are being ravaged by that damn drug as she tries to fight it
and wean herself off it. If there’s a possible cure for her, if there’s
something to help lessen the torment she’s going through, I would work with the
devil himself. I would sell every possession I own just to get it for her.”

Liv cast looks at her crew members, wanting to know what
they thought of this. Each of them looked as affected as she did but they held
their peace, letting her be the one to speak to him. For a moment she collected
her thoughts, wanting to word them properly.

“We know there’s a partial antidote, but it’s temporary and
it’s only a midway point, a step between the problem and a real cure,” Liv
began.

Marshall insisted that was enough, but Liv shook her head
firmly and laid a hand on his shoulder to hush him.

“Wouldn’t you rather have a
proper
cure for your
daughter?” she tempted him. “I don’t believe it would give her back whatever
she’s lost so far, but if a few weeks of study and work in
our
laboratories could help to bring back whatever it’s possible for her to
recover, don’t you want that? We would have the best minds in the world working
on finishing the process these people started. Instead of working with the
people who have poisoned and caused such pain to your little girl, and thousands
beside her, wouldn’t you prefer to work with
us
instead?”

Marshall Forrester stared at her for a moment, his face in
agonizing pain as he thought through the options available to him. Liv could
see the moment he came to a decision, for his face crumpled and he burst into
tears. Sobbing, his speech was garbled and she couldn’t quite work out what he
had decided, but she patted his shoulder a few times and let him get the angst,
the emotion and the terrible grief and worry out of his system.

Julian handed Liv a handful of paper towel. She smiled her
gratitude and whispered a soft thanks to her love before handing it in turn to
Forrester. Marshall wept some more and uttered an only semi-coherent thanks
before mopping his eyes and nose. He stuttered for a moment, blew his nose hard
into the paper towel and wiped the last of his tears from his eyes. After a few
deep breaths, which seemed to help him to bring himself more fully under
control, Forrester finally looked up at Liv.

“What do you need me to do?” he asked. His voice still
wobbled but most of his emotions were once again reined in.

“Do you know the names of the people responsible for Jolt?
Who took the research Mason did and created the drug?” Liv asked, figuring that
was the most important fact she needed to ascertain.

Forrester wrinkled his brow. “I know some of them, yes. I
honestly have no idea if I know all of them or just a section, but these people
don’t work like a cell. For sure, those I can give you will know the rest,
yes.”

“Brilliant.” Liv beamed at him and gently squeezed his
shoulder. “Then the only other thing you need to do for us is to hand over that
ochre-colored powder and the research notes you’ve been studying, and let our
people work on that cure for your daughter.”

“Am I going to be in trouble?” Marshall asked. He didn’t
look afraid for himself, more resigned and determined to see this through. Liv,
unsure herself, looked at Julian and Matt.

“With all the help you’ll be giving us, I would think—but I
can’t promise—that our captain will be able to smooth things over for you,”
Julian replied. “I can promise, however, that we will personally see to it that
your daughter gets one of the first validated antidotes once we’re sure there
are no side-effects. Regardless of what management decides about you.”

Relief, clear and obvious, flooded Marshall’s face. “That’s
all I care about. Thank you.”

Julian gestured to the cell switched off in his pocket and
left the room, almost certainly to call Will and get the ball rolling.
Marshall, much more eager to be helpful now, assisted Kelly, Matt and Liv in
collecting the research notes, the sample of ochre powder and anything else
related to the essence research. They collected it all in a large archive box.
As they were finishing, Julian returned, replacing the phone in his pocket.

“I have good news, Mr. Forrester,” he said. “My captain says
that if possible he will keep you from prosecution. You’ll need to testify and
name names, however. It could get you in hot water in some areas, but there are
people whose job it is to help you iron out those sorts of details. More
importantly, he agreed that the sooner we get this gear to our lab, the sooner
we’ll have the final steps of the antidote worked out. Then we’ll be able to
help out your daughter.”

Forrester breathed heavily and his eyes flooded with tears
again. He simply nodded, too overcome with emotion to do more.

“Is there anything else you guys want to collect?” Julian
asked.

Liv raised an eyebrow, curious why, in his own way, he was
hustling them. His next sentence explained everything. “Captain Will, upon
hearing everything Marshall here had to say and everything we’ve found today,
has sent out most of the teams on duty tonight. This entire lab is being
bagged, tagged and taken as evidence. Will wants you, Mr. Forrester, to come in
to the station tonight and give every name you possibly can. They, also, will
be picked up and brought into custody.”

“Can I call my wife? Warn her to pack a few bags of
essential belongings before the Enforcers come to collect her and the girls?”
Forrester pleaded.

Julian and Matt exchanged glances and finally nodded.

Relief crossed Marshall’s face and he hurried over to the
wall and picked up a phone before punching in a series of numbers.

“Carrie? Love? It’s me.” Marshall spoke rapidly into the
phone as if it would be taken away from him at any moment. “Look, I know this
is short notice and you’re going to be upset with me, but I’ve kind of stumbled
onto something with this drug I’ve been getting to help cure Matilda, and there
are going to be a bunch of people knocking on the door any minute now and I
really think you should—”

Liv turned away to tune out Marshall as he spoke to his
wife, only to see Matt with a giant smirk on his face. It was possibly the most
amused she had ever seen him and Liv could hardly believe his face didn’t split
from the grin he wore.

“What?” she questioned him, deeply curious.