Rx Missing (Decorah Security Series, Book #10): A Paranormal Romantic Suspense Novel (13 page)

She hung on to that conviction as Hamilton got her ready to leave reality. She didn’t know what she was going to find when she went back to the Mirador Hotel—either on a professional level or a personal one.

Probably Mack would never trust her again, and that conclusion made her insides knot. But she cared about him, and she knew he and his brother might need her in that dangerous and unpredictable environment.

A gagging sound behind Mack made him whirl. His eyes bugged out when he saw a man wearing the standard hotel running outfit lying on the couch, his body jerking. The man’s face was red and scrunched up as he coughed.

It was his brother.

“Grant,” Mack shouted as he crossed the room in a few quick strides. His twin seemed to be choking.

When he continued to jerk and cough, Mack sat him up, leaning his twitching body against his own arm and pounded on his back—which had no effect. He remembered about the Heimlich maneuver, of course, but that was for people who were eating and had gotten something stuck in their throat. He didn’t think that applied to Grant. He must be having some kind of reaction, maybe because sending him here had been done in a tearing hurry.

Grant’s body shook in his arms, then suddenly went limp. Mack eased him to his back. He’d stopped coughing, but his skin had turned pale.

Mack stretched out his mind—trying to connect with Grant the way they had when they were boys, the way they had a couple of hours ago. But he couldn’t feel his brother’s thoughts, and that sent a new wave of panic through him.

“Grant,” he whispered. “Don’t leave me now, Grant.”

A pounding on the door made his head jerk up. “Let me in.”

It was Lily, also dressed in the standard running suit.

He ran to the door and unlocked it, seeing the crowd of people gathered in the lobby, their wide-eyed attention on the business center.

“What?” George Roper called out.

Before he could say more, Lily closed the door behind her. She was carrying a medical bag which she set on the table and opened. He saw standard stuff inside, like gauze and bandages, and other things that looked less like first-aid equipment.

She bent over Grant, holding his face in her hands, then pressing her palm to his chest.

“What’s wrong?” Mack gasped.

“Difficult transition. Ideally he should have had more prep time.”

She pulled out a hypodermic, loaded it from a vial, and squirted some liquid from the end before turning over Grant’s arm, slapping her hand against the inside of his elbow and finding a vein. She stuck in the needle and depressed the plunger. Then she stepped back, letting Mack get closer.

The breath froze in his lungs as he stared at his brother, praying that he was going to respond. Glacial eons dragged by before he saw a flicker of Grant’s eyelids. Then his eyes blinked open, and he looked around as though he couldn’t quite believe where he was.

He focused on Mack.

“You made it. Thank God.”

“Looks like it.” Grant pushed himself up.

Mack reached for him, and they embraced.

“I thought you were dead,” Grant whispered.

“I thought you were gonna be.”

“But we’re both here,” Mack managed to say around the lump in his throat. He thought he’d never see his brother again, or anyone else he knew. Now here they were together. Too bad it was in this hellhole outside the known universe.

“Can you tell me how you found me?” he asked.

“I got a visit from a couple of lieutenants who told me you were dead. Like a sentimental fool, I was gonna bury some of your favorite stuff with you, and when I opened the coffin, I saw a dummy, not you.”

“Lucky for me that you were crazy enough to open the coffin. Then what?”

Grant dismissed the observation on his sanity and gave him a quick summary of what had happened since he’d started making calls, trying to find out what was really going on.

Mack swore again. “They really shot their own guy?”

“Yeah.”

From the side of the room, Lily gasped.

Ignoring her reaction, he asked, “And how do you fit into that?”

“I was hired by the Phoenix Project to help run a program designed to give patients in comas a second chance. I was excited about our work.”

“Looks like it got you into trouble,” he said dismissively. “And you,” he said to Grant with more feeling.

“The guys from the Roosevelt Memorial caught up with me at Hamilton Labs.”

“It was Hamilton’s idea to hide him in the VR,” Lily said.

“And what happened after I left?” Grant asked.

“They held everybody at gunpoint while they looked for you, but they didn’t figure it out.”

Mack turned to Lily. “And what are
you
doing here?”

“I came back to help.”

He might have said they didn’t need her help, but it would have been a lie. Grant had sure as hell needed her to give him a stimulant to bring him around. On the face of it, that seemed weird. If this was a virtual reality, why would someone need a stimulant? But it was more proof that you could die in here under the wrong circumstances.

There were a lot of answers he could have given her. He chose to focus on the big picture.

“We’ve got to figure out what’s going on with that hacker.”

“Yes.” She dragged in a breath and let it out. Landon is working on it from the other end.”

“Who is he?” Mack asked.

“The programmer who designed this environment.”

Mack gave a wry laugh. “Jesus, this is a hell of a place to wake up when you don’t know what happened to you.”

“He’d already gotten pretty far before I joined up. I take it he convinced Hamilton it was a good idea.”

“He should have put us in a small American town. Something familiar.”

“Wouldn’t it have been just as weird in a small town with no people?”

“I suppose,” Mack acknowledged, then gave her a direct look. “Maybe you should have come clean with everyone right away. That would have helped.”

“Maybe. But the team agreed people needed an adjustment period.”

“Or Hamilton wanted to see how they’d react,” Mack shot back.

She shook her head. “I don’t know. I signed on to the project to help people like my sister.”

“Who somehow paid you a visit—only you were already back in the lab.”

“Yes. And I called the facility where she’s been for the past fifteen years. Her status hasn’t changed. She’s still in a coma there.”

The conversation was interrupted by a knock on the door. “What the hell is going on in there?” a man’s sharp voice called out.

It was Tom Wright who had gone in to try to get his e-mail earlier.

“We’ll be out in a minute,” Lily said.

Grant looked toward the door. “Who’s that?”

“One of the patients you saw in those beds in the lab,” Lily answered

“Yeah, and what are you planning to tell him and everybody else?” Mack asked.

“The truth.”

“Even if some of them go crazy?” he asked.

“I think they’ve been here long enough that they’ll accept the truth. But before we go out there, I need to tell you something.” She looked from Mack to Grant and back again. “Dr. Hamilton, who runs the project, was in danger of running out of funding. Then someone named Avery Sterling came along and provided an infusion of cash. Hamilton claimed he investigated the guy before taking the money. I think he just wanted the cash and didn’t look too closely.”

“And what?” Grant asked.

“I think the goons who tried to kill you are working for Sterling, who wants to keep the project quiet.”

“And he’s willing to kill to keep it out of the news?” Grant asked.

Lily winced. “I wish it weren’t true. But we’ve got another problem. Or maybe a clue to what’s happening in here.”

“Oh yeah?”

“I wasn’t involved with the patients until the project was well under way. Maybe Hamilton initially thought he could handle the patients on his own. Then he decided he needed help. By the time I came on board, everyone was already here. Including someone Sterling asked Hamilton to include.”

“Who?”

“I don’t know. And I don’t know why, either. Hamilton said it was a relative of Sterling’s.”

“It’s a man or a woman?”

“He wouldn’t tell me. He just said that it’s a close relative of Sterling who was in an accident and needed to come in here to have a life, but I’m not sure that’s true.”

“Why not?”

“Because I think the hacker is after him—and why would he be?”

Mack shook his head. “Interesting question.”

“I think we have to find out,” Lily said.

Mack and Grant nodded.

Before they could continue the conversation, the pounding on the door resumed.

“This is ridiculous,” the ski instructor called out. “If you don’t open the door, I’m going to kick it in.”

“Aggressive,” Grant said.

She nodded. “He’s been on edge since he got here.” She looked back at the two brothers. “I’m going to open the door, and Mack’s going to tell them about Hamilton Labs.”

“Why not you?”

“Because you’re the natural leader here.”

He thought about that for a moment. “Okay. But I want backup from you if I need it.”

“Of course,” she said.

As soon as she turned the lock, the door burst inward and Wright charged in. Behind him, Mack could see the rest of the people he’d come to know here, all gathered for the big reveal. Some looked pissed that they had been excluded from whatever was going on in the business center. Others looked anxious. Paula was standing with her hands on her hips, glaring at him.

Wright’s gaze zeroed in on Grant, then swung to Mack before settling on the newcomer. “Who the hell are you? I mean you look almost like him.”

“I’m Mack’s brother. His twin.”

“And you just magically appeared here?” Wright demanded.

“It’s complicated,” Grant answered.

“You have to tell us what’s going on,” George Roper, the insurance agent, said.

“We will,” Mack answered. “But why don’t we all sit down,” He gestured to the couches and chairs in the lobby.

“Let’s go back to the bar,” Jenny Seville, the teacher, said in a thin voice. “I mean, I feel better in a smaller space.”

“Let’s sit down
now,”
Roper demanded. “The sooner we get some information, the better.”

There was a chorus of agreements, and Mack nodded. “Okay. But we can pull the sofas and chairs closer together.”

Some of the men helped Mack and Grant move the furniture into a more compact grouping.

When Lily started to take a seat on one of the far sofas, he reached for her arm. “Sit next to me.”

Her head whipped toward him, and he saw something in her eyes that made his stomach clench. It looked like she thought he was reaching out to her on a personal level when he actually wanted her as backup. She must have seen that on his face, because her own expression fell as she sat down next to him.

When the hotel guests were seated, Mack leaned forward. “I guess we should start with everyone introducing themselves to my brother.”

“Why?” Wright asked.

“Like we did at the beginning,” Mack answered. “He’d like to know who you are.”

“I’m Paula Rendell,” the travel agent started, and the others followed suit, some of them obviously not happy about the newcomer. Or maybe they thought Grant was a spy. For whom, exactly?

When they’d finished, Chris Morgan, the ski instructor, said to Grant, “Did you notice anything unusual about this place?”

“I couldn’t afford to stay here,” he quipped.

The line got a few laughs.

“So what do you do?”

Grant answered smoothly, “I’m a wilderness outfitter.” That’s what they’d helped their dad do in the summers, and Grant had gone back to it after leaving Decorah Security. He didn’t mention that he’d also been with the CIA.

“You were going to give us some facts,” Paula prompted, her gaze swinging back to Mack.

“Yeah, where are we, exactly?” Ben Todd, the lawyer, asked. He was one of the hostiles.

“Like Grant said, it’s complicated,” Mack responded.

“I’d appreciate a straight answer.”

Mack had been thinking about what to say first. “This is going to sound weird, but everybody here is part of a medical experiment.”

“How do you know?” George Roper demanded.

Mack glanced at Grant. “Because my brother found the lab that’s conducting the experiment.”

“This is a lab?” Roper shot back, looking around.

Mack shook his head. “Not exactly. The lab is in Maryland, and all of us are . . . sleeping there.”

“Sleeping?” Chris Morgan, the ski instructor, bellowed. “Somebody put us to sleep. Like in that movie,” he snapped his fingers. “What was it called?”

“Inception,” Paula supplied.

“Yeah, like that.”

Mack shook his head. “Similar, but not quite like that. Actually, everyone here was injured in some kind of accident. An accident that put each of us into a coma.”

“Christ, you expect me to believe that,” Roper growled, but Mack could see that wheels were turning in his head.