Adaptation (28 page)

They sat together quietly while she smoked, the nicotine buzzing through her body and making her head woozy. Someone had dropped a muffin on the sidewalk a few feet away, the crumbs trailing toward the gutter. She realized, with a start, that she hadn’t seen a pigeon since before the car accident. “Are they killing the pigeons?” she asked.

“They’ve been killing them since June.” Julian ground out his
cigarette beneath his shoe and got up to toss it in the trash can nearby.

When he returned, Reese said, “I don’t know who Amber is.” She took all the hurt that was gnawing at her and fisted it into a hard, angry shield. “Who
is
she? Why would she lie about—about everything?”

“I don’t know,” Julian said, shaking his head. “Fuck. I’m so sorry.” He put an arm around her shoulders and tugged her closer. But she didn’t want to lean against him. If she gave in, she would turn into a wreck. She couldn’t give in. She had to wall everything up and shut herself off. Otherwise she’d never have the nerve to keep searching for the answers to all these questions.

She bent over to put out the cigarette on the sidewalk, leaving a smudge of black ash behind. “I have to find out,” she said, taking a shaking breath. “I have to.”

Reese and Julian parted on the corner of Church and Twenty-Fourth. “Leave your phone on,” he called to her as he started across Church Street. “I’ll call you later.”

She headed south on Twenty-Fourth, pulling out her cell to call David. But he didn’t answer, and his phone kept ringing until she realized the voice mail wasn’t going to pick up either. She ended the call, wondering if she had the wrong number.

She was preoccupied with thinking about how they could get inside Allied Research Associates when she arrived at home and unlocked the door. Inside, the house was dim and quiet. She hung her keys on the hall tree and walked past the archway to the living room on her way to the kitchen.

She halted.

There were three men in the living room, all in black suits. Agent Forrestal stood and gave her a tight smile. “Hello, Miss Holloway.”

Her mouth fell open.

Agent Forrestal took a step forward, his polished shoes clicking smartly across the wooden floorboards. “I see that we’ve startled you.”

“What are you doing here?” Reese glanced at her keys, still swinging on their hook. The front door had been locked, hadn’t it? “How did you get in?”

He folded his hands behind his back. “Your lock wasn’t secure.”

“But you can’t just come in. It’s against the law.” Forrestal gave her a slightly dismissive smile, and her face burned. Obviously that made no difference to them. “What are you doing here?” she demanded again.

“We’re here to take you into protective custody,” Agent Forrestal answered. “We have to leave immediately.”

“Leave? For where? I’m not going anywhere with you.” She backed away until her foot struck the wall behind her.

“It would be easier for you—for everyone, really—if you don’t resist.”

She glanced behind Forrestal at the other two men in black. One had sandy hair and freckles; the other had skin the color of mahogany. Neither looked like they’d have any problem subduing her if she resisted.

“Agent Kowalski, take Miss Holloway upstairs to pack,” Forrestal said. The sandy-haired man stepped forward.

“I’m not going anywhere,” Reese said again, her muscles tensing.

Kowalski hesitated, looking at Forrestal. “Would you rather we pack for you?” Forrestal asked.

“Pack to go
where
?” Reese asked angrily.

“That’s classified,” Forrestal answered. “Kowalski—”

“My mom will call the police,” Reese interrupted. “You can’t kidnap me.”

Forrestal’s jaw tightened. “Do you really think the police will be able to do anything?”

Reese felt the lump of her phone in her back pocket as it pressed against the wall. Before she could second-guess herself she lunged for the front door.

It happened so fast that she could barely register what was going on. Someone grabbed her arm, twisting it back painfully. She yelped, turning her head to see Kowalski holding her still with one big hand. His hair was buzzed so short that she could see his white scalp through it. He had something that looked like a pen in his other hand, but then Reese saw the slender tip of it and realized it was a hypodermic needle.

“I’m sorry,” Kowalski said, and his sharp blue eyes held a trace of sympathy as he plunged the needle into her arm.

She felt the sharp stab, and then a thick coldness rushed through her body. Kowalski’s face spun in her vision; the smooth lines of his clean-shaven cheeks blurred. Behind him Agent Forrestal loomed like a phantom, and then she saw nothing.

Reese woke to the sensation of the world falling away
beneath her. She blinked her eyes open and saw a blackened window. Her stomach heaved and she tried to bend over but discovered she was strapped to a seat. Two seat belts ran diagonally across her body and over her shoulders, pinning her in place. Her ears popped, and she realized that she must be on an airplane.

She turned her head to the other side and saw David sitting across the aisle, hands gripping his armrests. “David,” she said, her voice sounding muffled.

Behind her a man said, “She’s awake.”

She heard someone getting up, and a moment later Special Agent Forrestal was leaning over her. “
You—
you drugged me,” she said. She felt as if a fog were blanketing her mind; everything she saw seemed slightly out of focus.

He was studying her face. “The sedative affected you more strongly than we expected.” He reached overhead and took down a waxed paper sack, handing it to her. “We’ll be landing soon, so take this in case you need it.”

It was an airsickness bag. “Where are we landing?”

“I think you’ll find it familiar,” he said, and then returned to his seat.

“Reese?” David said. His face was pale, and he looked like he might need an airsickness bag too.

“Are you okay?” she asked. His face swam in her vision, and she blinked, trying unsuccessfully to clear her head.

“I’m feeling… a little weird.”

“Yeah, me too.” She leaned back, trying to breathe steadily as the plane descended. Why did her body feel so disconnected? It was as if her nerves were all gummed up, making everything she did unbearably slow.

“I think it’s the drugs,” David said.

Through the haze of the sedative she stared at the blackened window. There were a couple of scratches in the paint, and through them bright light glowed. It was still daytime. She wondered if her mom had figured out that she was gone yet. The plane’s descent seemed to accelerate, and she heard machines grinding as the wheels dropped. She gripped the edge of her seat and closed her eyes, sweat breaking out on her forehead. She had never been airsick before, but this landing might precipitate her first time. When the wheels finally touched down, she heaved a sigh of relief and immediately began to fumble with the buckles to release herself from the seat. But her fingers were clumsy, and she couldn’t do it.

“Hold on, Miss Holloway,” Agent Forrestal said as the plane taxied down the runway. “We’re almost there.”

But it seemed like forever before the plane came to a stop and Agent Forrestal pressed a button overhead that released her seat belts. They retracted automatically as another agent opened the door. Bright daylight flooded into the small cabin of the plane, making Reese squint. She got up, clinging to the top of her seat for balance. Her head spun. Beside her David stood as well, and she heard him say, “Whoa,” as he banged into the wall.

Agent Forrestal came back. He put a hand on her arm, and at first she tried to pull away, but his fingers only clamped down more firmly. “Let me help you out,” he said, and she winced at the grip on her elbow.

“Fine, jeez,” she mumbled. He prodded her down the steps of the plane and into a brilliant, hot afternoon.

It looked exactly like the airstrip in Nevada. It
smelled
exactly like the airstrip in Nevada: gasoline on concrete; and dry, dusty air. She jerked away from Agent Forrestal and turned around in a daze, staring at the purplish mountains in the distance, the wide expanse of brown desert, the beige and tan buildings that nearly blended into the ground. She thought she should be terrified—she recognized this dimly in her brain—but instead she felt as if someone had pressed a mute button on her emotions. She saw David climbing down from the plane, eyes narrowed against the glare, and she asked, “Are we here? Is this the same place?”

“Reese,” David said. She could barely hear him, but she recognized the shape of her name on his lips. His body seemed to waver in the sunlight as if he were a mirage. She blinked again, but it only
made her dizzy. She bent over, hands on her knees, as she sucked in a breath of hot air and tried to will herself out of the sedative haze. From the corner of her eye she saw Agent Forrestal talking to Agent Kowalski. Another man in black was carrying duffel bags out of the plane. She heard a car engine approaching and straightened to see a Humvee pulling up to the edge of the airstrip.

Agent Forrestal was beside her. “You’ll need to get into the vehicle,” he said.

She flinched away from him, bumping into David. He put his arm around her waist, and that seemed to help a little. Agent Forrestal’s face came into focus. His forehead wrinkled, forming a straight line over his nose.

“… into the vehicle,” Forrestal was saying.

“I’m going,” she heard David say. His voice was so close to her that she could feel the vibration through the side of her body.

They walked together, legs scrambling at first so that she nearly tripped over his feet. His arm tightened around her. A charge ran from where his fingers pressed into her hip and all the way through her body. She slipped her arm around him to balance herself, her hand sliding across the muscles of his back. He was warm, and she could smell the slight tang of metal from the sweat on his skin. Beyond her physical sense of him, there was something deeper—something that she remembered to be afraid of. But fear too was muffled by the sedative, and it didn’t seem nearly as important as the fact that when she leaned on David, she felt more like herself.

When they reached the Humvee, Agent Forrestal opened the back door and she had to separate herself from David to climb in. She was startled by how wrong that seemed. The haze
returned, making her clumsy again, and she slid awkwardly across the giant seat. David followed her in, and then Agent Forrestal closed the door and climbed into the front passenger seat. The Humvee began to move.

They were driven past a row of low buildings that Reese thought might be the Plato facilities, but they never drove close enough for her to make out the signs. They headed down a pale, dusty road that led in a ruler-straight line toward what looked like an airplane hangar. As they approached Reese saw a cluster of shorter buildings in front of the hangar, and this was where the Humvee stopped.

A black man in a white button-down shirt emerged from the nearest building, and Agent Forrestal went to meet him while Reese and David got out of the vehicle. “Miss Holloway, Mr. Li, this is Special Agent Malcolm Todd,” Forrestal said. “He’ll be taking over from here.”

“Good afternoon,” Agent Todd said. There was something familiar about his face, but she couldn’t put her finger on what it was. “Please follow me.” He opened the door to the building, gesturing for Reese and David to enter.

She glanced at David, who shrugged slightly. She knew what he meant. Behind them Agent Forrestal and the driver of the Humvee—another man in black—were watching them. All around, the desert rippled with heat. There was nowhere else for them to go.

The interior was as nondescript as any ordinary office
building, but there appeared to be only one thing in it: an elevator that had no call buttons. A camera was mounted above the sliding doors, and Reese gazed up at its blinking red light, the hairs on her neck rising.

The elevator arrived with a soft, nonthreatening
ding
. Agent Todd gestured for them to enter. As she stepped into the elevator, the fear she thought she should be feeling began to pulse inside her, and she knew the sedative was wearing off.

“Where are we going?” she asked.

“Medical evaluations are first,” Agent Todd said. His dark eyes regarded her straightforwardly, as if he had nothing to hide. But she was certain—absolutely certain at that moment—that he did. He broke their gaze before she did, and she stepped
back as if she had been pushed, banging into the wall of the elevator.

David touched her elbow. “Careful,” he said.

Her senses zoomed in on the pressure of his fingertips. “I’m fine.” She stepped away, and she didn’t look at Agent Todd so closely again.

When the elevator doors slid open they were in a hallway identical to the one above, but this time the air was noticeably cooler. Agent Todd took them down the long, white corridor, and they passed a number of locked doors, each one fitted with a lock like the ones Reese remembered from the Plato facility. Finally Agent Todd led them through a set of double doors into a larger space that looked like a hospital ward. There was a central area with a large, U-shaped counter, and around the perimeter were glass walls. On the right side were offices; on the left were exam rooms. At the far end the glass walls were frosted, and Reese saw a sign for a restroom. Several men in lab coats were working in the area, and as Agent Todd led Reese and David through the space, most looked up to watch them pass.