Pandora's Box (20 page)

“Tell me about this great invention I keep hearing about,” she said.
 
“The microchip.”

“It’s complicated.”
 
His eyes drifted to the door.
 
“And I’m afraid we don’t have much time.”

“Why?
 
Are you expecting company?”

“No, you are.”
 
He smiled again, but this time none of the warmth made it to his eyes.
 
“Your friend was insistent on being close at hand, even when I assured him that I am a trained physician.
 
I convinced him to allow us to bring you to this motel room because it’s across the street from the airport.”
 
He shrugged.
 
“Anyway, my friend’s employees are trying to keep him busy, but I don’t think they’ll be able to contain him for very much longer.
 
He’s an extremely stubborn man, and he seems to care for you a great deal.”

Madison
’s eyes narrowed.
 
“If you hurt
Tyler
, they’ll need dental records to identify you.”

“Your young man is fine.”
 
He waved her protests away with a flick of his hand, but not before she detected the fear riding on his voice.
 
He knew she meant the threat literally.
 
Good.
 
Maybe he would give her more answers than he intended to.
 
Sometimes frightened people didn’t know when to shut up.
 
“Rico’s men are talking to him.
 
That is all.
 
Just talking.”

Grainger began to pace; his eyes constantly darted to the door.
 
For some reason
Tyler
seemed to worry him more than she did.
 
It could be something as simple as male chauvinism.
 
Madison
feared it went deeper.
 
Could
Tyler
be keeping secrets from her this late in the game?

As he paced, he talked.
 
“I just wanted to help people.
 
That’s all.
 
I came up with the idea for the invention in college.
 
After I secured financial backers, I started to work in earnest on it until I’d perfected it.
 
Allow me to use laymen terms so that you can understand how it works.
 
I called it Pandora’s Box for a reason.
 

“You see, I developed a way to cut out certain memories, goals, personality traits, etcetera and lock them away so the mind cannot retrieve them.
 
Memories never really go away, but you can put them somewhere in the mind where the person can’t easily retrieve them.
 
I put them in separate files like on a computer or in boxes, if you prefer.
 
I can also place commands, sort of hypnotic suggestions in these boxes.
 
When the time comes, the box opens and the person with the microchip will follow the commands as if they were their idea to begin with.
 

“Since the microchip is installed using a syringe and the subject can be programmed not to remember anything, it would be a revolutionary way of brainwashing foreign spies.
 
And unlike other brainwashing techniques it can be done in a matter of hours.
 
That’s why the CIA wants control of it.
 
Did you know they tried to have me killed?
 
If it wasn’t for Rico, I’d be dead now.
 
He’s been protecting me.”

Madison
thought back on the friendship that the four men had enjoyed in the past.
 
Elias, Rico, Malcom Law and her father.
 
What had happened to split up the friendship, and did it have anything to do with the microchips?
 
She asked Elias the question, blurted it out before she had time to second guess herself.
 
She watched his facial expression change.

His dark brows knitted together behind the eyeglasses.
 
His Adam’s apple bobbed a bit.
 
“I rue the day I met Malcom Law and your father.
 
They wanted to use the microchips to further their own agendas.
 
When I wouldn’t allow it, they turned against me.”

Madison
couldn’t believe what she was hearing.
 
Her father hadn’t been the type of man to harm someone just to get ahead.
 
A small doubt niggled at the back of her mind.
 
It couldn’t possibly be true.
 
And she couldn’t see the president wanting to use the microchips for nefarious purposes either.
 

Grainger had to be lying to her.
 

A multitude of questions surged through her muddled mind.
 
According to Grainger they didn’t have a great deal of time, so it was important for her to pick which ones were crucial to solving the mystery involving her father.
 

“I have a chip in my brain, don’t I?”
 
His slight nod seemed reluctant.
 
She swallowed the building lump in her throat and pretended it didn’t scare the crap out of her.
 
She said, “I think something’s wrong with it.
 
I blacked out and woke up in a bar.
 
They say I attacked someone, broke his finger, but I don’t remember a thing about it.”

“I’m not surprised.
 
The microchips may deteriorate with time.
 
There’s been no long time study, of course.”

He’d given her a crucial piece of information.
 
She latched onto it.
 
“My chip is old.
 
How old?
 
When did I get it?
 
Whose idea was it to give it to me?”

“You have the first one I ever created.”
 
Eli’s eyes twinkled with what looked like pride.
 

“Who did you sell Pandora’s Box to?
 
Boracci?”

“I would not sell my life’s work to anyone.”
 
Grainger turned and narrowed eyes on her.
 
“It’s too important.
 
I thought I was doing my country a great service by trying to cure Alzheimer’s and other like-diseases, but the CIA decided they wanted to use my great invention for evil.
 
Unfortunately they didn’t want to take no for an answer.
 
They plotted to kill me.”

Sadness tinted Grainger’s newborn smile as he said, “In the end, it was your father who warned me.
 
Although he also wanted my invention, he wouldn’t kill me to get it.
 
At least he drew the line there.
 
But he was afraid of Malcom, so he wouldn’t lift a finger to help me.
 
He only gave me a warning and an offer to hide out at his cabin.
 
That’s all I got from him.
 
I had no choice but to turn to Rico.”

She didn’t like what she was hearing.
 
It flew in the face of everything she’d known and loved about her father.

“My father was a good man.”
 
She hesitated.
 
“Wasn’t he?”
 

“No.
 
Not exactly.
 
I wouldn’t call him good.
 
Duncan
tried blackmail and threats to get me to use my microchips to serve his purpose.
 
He and Malcom were in total agreement on that.
 
They only disagreed on how to achieve their united purpose.”

Another dagger hit her heart.

If Grainger was telling the truth, she hadn’t known her father at all.

“
Madison
!”
 
Tyler
shouted through the closed door while beating his fist against it.
 
“Are you all right in there?
 
Answer me!”

Grainger hurried to the dresser, grabbed his belongings which seemed to include a briefcase and a handful of scraps, and hurried for the door.
 
“Forget about the chips and go home before you get hurt.”

“No.
 
You should forget about Rico and let me help you.
 
I can protect you.”
 

“People in the agency aren’t the only ones after me.
 
Other governments would also like to have the key to Pandora’s Box.”
 
The knocking intensified, and
Tyler
shouted her name again.
 
Grainger looked like he might piss his pants at any second.
 
His eyes darted from her to the door and back again.
 
“They all want my work, but they don’t mind if I’m dead.
 
They think they can use it without me.”
 

Madison
tried to get out of bed.
 
Her legs felt like jelly and refused to hold her, so she hovered on the mattress’ edge.
 
“I can help you,” she said.
 
“I can hide you from the agency.
 
If anyone is truly out to get you, I promise to stop them.”

Grainger opened the door to
Tyler
and hurried through it like a rat abandoning a sinking ship.
 
Tyler
hesitated as if he wanted to chase Grainger down and question him, but he joined her instead.
 

“You okay?”
 
He smoothed a few stray strands of hair from her face.
 
“What happened to you on the plane?
 
None of the damn passengers could agree on what they saw.
 
Is it true someone used a stun gun on you?”

Someone?
 
So they didn’t have him in custody.
 
Well, she had the guy’s face forever imprinted on her mind and someday she would track him down and demand a rematch.
 
Another sliver of pain stabbed her from behind the eyes.
 
Bastard was going to pay for attacking her.

******

The drive had taken close to an hour.
 
By the time they arrived at her father’s cabin,
Madison
was sick to death of small talk.
 
For some reason
Tyler
seemed reluctant to discuss anything important.
 
So when they drove up the gravel drive and the small log cabin appeared,
Madison
breathed a sigh of relief.

The cabin stood two stories high and displayed huge dormer windows.
 
The sight of it took
Madison
back to better days, time spent with her father fishing and hunting.
 
Tyler
parked the rental car on the gravel road directly in front of the cabin.
 
Madison
had to turn her head and look away for a moment.
 
Emotion clogged her throat.
 

You’re stronger than this!
 
She clenched her teeth and forced the crippling claws of grief away from her heart and mind.
 
Later, after her father’s name had been cleared, she would have a good cry.
 

A groan surprised her, sneaking past her lips.

“Are you okay to go inside?”
Tyler
asked, reading her expression.

Pride straightened her spine.
 
“Of course.
 
Why wouldn’t I be?”
 
Tyler
’s door opened and he started to get out of the car, but
Madison
grabbed his arm on impulse.
 
He glanced at her, eyebrows raised.
 
She said, “I’d like a moment alone in the cabin, if you don’t mind.”

“Sure.”
 
He shrugged.
 
“Whatever you need.”

She hurried to the front door, inserted the key with a twist of her wrist, and quicly crossed the threshold. The stale air of a place that had been closed up for an eternity hit her in the face, the stench of bittersweet ghosts.
 
She wrinkled her nose.
 
She’d have to open up a few windows.
 
But first she needed to make use of her time alone.

She rifled through her father’s desk, searching his personal papers, looking for clues without the distraction of
Tyler
hovering in the background.
 
If there was something to find, she wanted to find it first.
 
Then she’d decide whether to share it with her self-appointed ally.
 

Grainger had definitely spent time in her father’s cabin.
 
A corner of the wall had been scrawled on with black marker.
 
The handwriting was small and nearly incoherent and Grainger had used abbreviations and code words.
 
She couldn’t make anything out of it.

Most of the stuff she found in and around her father’s desk didn’t amount to spit.
 
Her gut told her there had to be something more.
 
A heavy rock the size of a fist settled in her stomach.
 
Her eyes went to the partially closed front door.
 
How long would
Tyler
give her before he figured out what she was doing?