Rx Missing (Decorah Security Series, Book #10): A Paranormal Romantic Suspense Novel (20 page)

“He’s going for the others,” Mack shouted.

“On it,” Landon answered. The scene switched to the hallway, where a bunch of furniture from the bedrooms—sofas, chairs and tables had suddenly blocked the corridor.

Preston screamed as he tore at them, throwing them out of the way.

“He’s so mad, he’s forgotten that he can just hack them away,” Landon said in satisfaction, piling up more debris as fast as Preston threw it out of the way.

“Keep going,” Mack shouted over his shoulder. He was already out of the room and racing for the stairs, his heart pounding and his breath sawing in and out of his lungs.

He made it to the next floor, then had to lean against the wall while he caught his breath, silently cursing that he wasn’t in better shape.

Mack brought Sterling down in the elevator and stashed him in a nearby room. When he arrived in the lab, followed by the Decorah men, Grant was already sitting up in his bed, looking like he couldn’t believe he was back in the real world after his stint in captivity.

Lily and Hamilton were bending over two of the other patients.

“How many left?” Mack asked.

“Just Todd and Rendell.”

“Is she okay after what he did to her?”

“Her blood pressure is a little high, but I think she’s going to make it,” Lily answered.

“And you’ve got Roper?” Mack clarified.

“Yes,” Hamilton answered.

Mack turned back to the screen. “Shut the VR down,” he told Landon.

“But Preston will be trapped without—anything. No air. No light. No sensation.

“That’s the idea.”

As Landon turned back to his keyboard, Grant climbed down from his bed and went to Jenny. Leaning over her, he spoke softly.

Mack felt his heart squeeze as he watched his brother try to communicate with the unconscious patient. Grant had found a woman he cared about, and she was stuck in a make-believe world. Or was there hope for her—the way there had been hope for him?

Maybe later, Mack thought as he watched Landon turn back to his keyboard.

oOo

Danny Preston gasped, or he would have gasped if there had been air to breathe.

A moment ago he’d been madly throwing furniture out of his way so that he could get to the location where Landon had found Roper. Now he was nowhere.

Terror tightened his chest. He tried to calm himself. He didn’t have to breathe in here. This was only a virtual world, and his body was safe in an office building near Hamilton Labs.

But he couldn’t stop the panic sensations from threatening to swallow him like a whale that had opened its mouth to suck in little fish.

Ineffective curses chased themselves through his mind. He’d never thought of himself as a sadist, but he’d been desperate enough to torture people in the VR while he searched for Roper. Now that bastard at the keyboard back in the lab had turned the tables on him. Worse than turned the tables because he was nowhere. Nothing.

He tried to move his hand. Tried to bring it to his face so he could at least feel something, but he couldn’t even lift his arm. No. He had no arm. No body. No touchstone to reality. And he knew that time was short before he went bonkers—or died trying to drag imaginary air into his lungs.

Stay calm
,” he warned himself.
There’s nothing you can do except wait for them to turn this place on again.

But who was that going to be?

Did “Mr. Smith,” the man who’d come to him with the deal of a lifetime, even have a clue what was happening now?

No way of knowing.

Danny could only pray that someone found him soon.

Pray? He couldn’t remember the last time he’d done it, but now he couldn’t help thinking it was his only hope.

oOo

Mack had just allowed himself to relax a fraction when two men he’d never seen before stepped into the lab, guns drawn.

One looked like he was in his thirties, with the eager expression of a novice on an exciting mission. The other was older, with more of a “seen it all” air.

“Nobody move. Hands in the air,” the older one said.

Jesus, now what?

As everyone in the room turned toward the speaker, Mack tried to assess his chances of getting to the weapon he’d laid on the desk.

Mack decided he’d only get himself shot if he went for the gun. But what the hell was going on, exactly? Had more of Sterling’s men shown up in time to seek revenge for their comrades’ deaths?

“I said hands in the air, and turn this way,” the older man ordered.

Everyone in the lab complied. The guy in charge spoke again,

“I’d like to know why there are a bunch of dead bodies piled up around the entrance to this building,” he said in a surprisingly even voice, given the circumstances.

As he studied the group, he zeroed in on Decorah.

“Frank?”

“Marty?”

The two men stared at each other as though they had both stumbled into a crack house by mistake.

Frank Decorah turned to Mack. “Marty Weld and I were in rehab together at the Naval Medical Center, mumble mumble years ago, after we were both injured in Vietnam. I went into the security business. He joined the FBI and became a Special Agent.”

The man and his younger associate were still holding their guns, but they looked a lot more friendly than they had when they’d come up here to find out about the gun battle.

“What are you doing here?” Weld asked Frank.

“I was called in because the building was under siege—from men working for a guy named Avery Sterling.”

“We know about him,” Weld clipped out.

“His men fired on my guys, and we won.”

“Where is he?”

“I tied him up and put him in an empty office,” Mack said.

Weld nodded and lowered his gun, then inclined his head toward his younger colleague. “This is Gordinger.”

“Nice to meet you. I’m Mack Bradley,” Mack said.

“And you are involved how?”

“I was one of the patients in Dr. Hamilton’s experiment. I take it that, if you know about Sterling, you know what this lab is doing?”

“Yeah,” Weld answered without giving anything away.

Everybody in the room gave their names and explained their role.

When they were finished, the agent in charge said, “Take us to Sterling.”

Mack led the way to the room where he’d left the thug. The man was slumped in the chair. When he saw he had visitors, he sat up straighter and glared at them.

“Take him out to the van,” Weld said to his associate.

“Right.”

“Get the hell away from me,” Sterling shouted when the younger man bent to untie him.”

Weld assessed the situation. “Maybe we’re better off leaving him tied and wheeling him out,”

“No! Wait.”

“You have something to tell us?”

“Who are you?”

“FBI.”

Sterling blanched.

Weld jerked his hand toward the door, and Gordinger wheeled the chair toward the elevator.

They all returned to the lab where Hamilton and Lily were attending to the patients.

“Maybe he’ll talk when you get him downtown.”

“Maybe,” Weld said.

“Why did he stash Roper in the VR, then hire Preston to question him?” Grant asked.

Weld tipped his head to the side. “You got the first part right. Sterling stashed him here. With the cooperation of Doctor Hamilton.”

They all looked at the doctor.

“Sterling was keeping the project funded,” Hamilton bit out. “And he got me some additional patients. I don’t see anything wrong with that.”

“You mean like me?” Mack asked.

Blood drained from Hamilton’s face.

The agent jumped back into the conversation. “But Sterling didn’t hire Preston.”

“What?” Mack swung toward him, wondering if he’d heard that right. He’d figured out the only way this whole thing could make sense. Now Weld was telling him something different?

“You’re right about Sterling stashing Roper here—hoping he’d wake up,” the FBI agent said. “But Preston’s not working for Sterling. He’s working for me.”

“Huh?” Mack asked.

“I hired him, under the alias of ‘Mr. Smith.’ I sent him in there to find out which of the patients Sterling had brought here. And he did it. He called a little while ago and gave me Roper’s name.”

Grant looked as dumbfounded as Mack felt. “You mind explaining that?” he asked.

“Preston was in the pen for hacking into a couple of major banks. We sprang him so he could be in contact with the VR,” Weld said.

“But why?” Mack asked.

“To be succinct, Sterling’s got a lot of business interests. One of them is chemical manufacturing. He lost a lucrative chemical weapons contract that he probably should have been awarded. But there was some kind of under-the-table stuff going on at DOD. Sterling was boiling mad about it and decided to get the money he’d lost out of the government in a different way. He hired someone to place bombs loaded with toxic chemicals in subway systems in major cities.”

Hamilton shook his head in denial. “No.”

“Yes.”

“What do you mean bombs with toxic chemicals?” the doctor demanded.

“Just what it sounds like. Bombs that are going to kill a lot of people. There are different timers at different locations. And if they go off, people riding the systems will breathe the stuff and die. We’ve kept it quiet to prevent mass hysteria, because we can’t shut down every subway system in the country. Sterling was planning to blackmail the U.S. government, but we think his agent got cold feet after he planted the devices.”

The man kept speaking. “We were trying to find out exactly who it was when he disappeared. Our best guess is that Sterling’s men were closing in on him, and he had an accident while he was trying to go into hiding. Sterling’s guys got to him before we could, spirited him away, and arranged to have him brought here. We’ve been beating the bushes for him. Then we picked up communications between Sterling and Hamilton and zeroed in on the lab.”

“You can’t find the bombs? Can’t Sterling tell you where they are?”

“He didn’t want to know. We found one in Boston and disabled it with minutes to spare. Do you know how many subway systems there are in the U.S. and how many places there are to hide an explosive device?”

“You have a point.”

“So we hired Preston to get the information out of the guy who planted the bombs.”

“From what I’ve seen, it looks like Preston’s brilliant,” Mack said. “Unfortunately, he’s also out of control. He’s threatening to kill people in the VR if he didn’t get Roper.”

“He’s an outstanding hacker,” Weld agreed. “He was serving fifteen to twenty years for the bank heists, and we got him out for this job. We told him that if he didn’t complete it, he was going back. That’s why he’s willing to use any method available to locate Roper and pry the information out of him. Sorry if he went over the top.”

“Just great,” Mack muttered as he realized they were in trouble.

He rushed toward the computer screen and shouted at Landon who was sitting in his office. “You already shut down the VR with Preston in there?”

“Right.”

The agent swore and looked toward Hamilton. “What does that mean? What happens to Preston now?”

“He’s got no air in there. No senses. He could die or go crazy,” the researcher answered in a flat voice.

“But it’s just a virtual world, isn’t it?” Weld asked, sounding like a man who had thought he was safe at the edge of a cliff and now felt the world crumbling out from under him.

“That doesn’t prevent it from having real effects,” Lily answered. “That’s why the crap Preston was pulling on the patients worked.”

Mack was madly revising his plans as Weld looked at Frank Decorah and Cole Marshall.

The FBI agent spoke to the private security men. “We appreciate the help you’ve given us, but I think it would be better if you leave.”

Decorah looked reluctant, and finally inclined his head toward Grant. “Walk with me.”

Grant followed him out of the room, then came back alone, giving Mack a long look.

Bad idea to send him away.

Yeah. But we’ll waste time challenging the FBI.

Unfortunately.

Mack took a quick breath. He had the feeling there was more Grant wanted to say, but there wasn’t time to focus on that now.

Instead, he turned back to Weld. “We have to go in and get Preston.”

“You can go in and out of there?”

“Yes.” He swung back toward the screen where they could see Landon up in his office. “You’re going to have to bring the VR back up again.”

“I just shut it down.”

“Yeah, but the situation has changed. We need Preston to help us now. I’m going in to get him. Where is he?”

“I left him in the upper hall near Lily’s room, next to the pile of furniture I was using to keep him from getting downstairs and attacking the others”

“Can you send me there?”

“Yes. Since I sent your brother in, I’ve been changing the parameters so I can use any location for an entry point.”

“If you revive Preston,” he’s going to be mad as hell. He’s a pretty volatile guy,” Weld said.

“Yeah, we noticed. But do you have a better idea?”

The agent shook his head.

“Okay. When I find Preston, am I authorized to tell him that he fulfilled his agreement with you?”

“Maybe he hasn’t.”

“Listen, you want him to cooperate, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Then we have to give him what he wants.”

The agent nodded, and Mack wasn’t sure what Weld was agreeing to. Did he mean the accord could be a sham? Or was he willing to release Preston when this was over?

There was no time to argue about any of that now. Mack had to get in there—fast.

He looked toward the bed where he’d been confined earlier. “No reason to pretend I’m a patient. I can just wear my street clothes. That will save time.”

“What do you mean ‘I’? I’m going with you,” Lily said.

“It’s too dangerous,” he answered immediately.

“You’re not going without me,” she said, punching out the words. “And if Preston needs medical attention, you’ll need me.”

Mack hesitated, but if bombs with deadly chemicals could go off at any moment, he wasn’t about to waste time arguing, and Lily was already climbing onto the bed that she’d used earlier.

He kicked off his shoes and lay down. As Hamilton strode toward him, his eyes met the doctor’s.

If he wanted, Hamilton could kill him now. Maybe he thought he had reason to do it.

Oops, something happened, and Bradley bought the farm.

Or maybe going back so soon was a bad idea.

He looked up to see that Grant was standing in back of the doctor.

“Take care of my brother if you want to stay healthy,” he said in a low but gritty voice. The words sounded more like a warning than a request.

Hamilton gave him a startled look, then nodded as he began setting up the equipment for Mack.

“Ready?” the doctor asked.

“I’d better be.”

He felt a prick in his arm.

“Count backwards from one hundred,” the doctor said.

Mack started counting but didn’t get any farther than ninety-seven.

He had the familiar sensation of being nowhere, and then he was back in the hotel, wearing the familiar running suit and tee shirt. He was lying on the rug in the hallway next to the pile of furniture that Landon said he had thrown into the corridor to keep Preston from getting to the people in the lobby.

Mack looked wildly around for Lily, and when he didn’t see her, panic rose like a tsunami wave sweeping toward a ravaged shore.

Christ, had something happened to her in the transition?

Then he reminded himself that Hamilton couldn’t send them both back at once. He’d started with Mack, and now he was doing the other fool who’d wanted to come back here. Still his heart pounded like a jungle telegraph gone wild until he saw her wink into existence on the carpet nearby.

“Thank God,” he gasped, kneeling beside her.

He wanted to hold on to her and celebrate their crossing of a barrier that normal people never encountered, but there was no time for celebration now. Preston had been trapped in here without oxygen, and they had to focus on saving the man’s miserable life.

Mack eyed the pile of furniture Landon had desperately thrown here. What a freaking mess.

“Shit, it looks like we landed on the wrong side.” Taking a deep breath, Mack started reaching for furniture and tossing it out of the way.

With Lily working beside him, they began clearing a narrow path. When Mack ducked under a sofa that started to fall on him, Lily grabbed it, and they pushed it aside.

Several times they had to stop and prevent minor avalanches, but they finally made it to the other side of the heap. A few yards down the hall, they could see Preston lying on the carpet with his eyes closed.

Mack sprinted toward him, thankful that he was in a lot better shape in this virtual environment than he had been in the lab. Lily was right behind him. She felt for a pulse in Preston’s neck, then breathed out what looked like a sigh of relief.