Page 48 of Preying Game

Chapter 15

In the Decorah infirmary, which looked a lot like a doctor’s office, Alice sat on an exam table while Rachel—the doctor had said to call her Rachel—did a routine physical—listening to her heart and lungs, taking her blood pressure, testing her reflexes.

“All good,” she said as she made notations on a screen, using something that looked like a flat typewriter keyboard.

“Is that a computer?”

“Yes. I guess you haven’t seen one.”

“Only Jonah’s phone. He said that was a computer.”

“Yes. This is a laptop. It’s connected to a bigger data storage unit. I can make notes and call them up any time I want. And, of course, they take up less space than paper records.”

Alice nodded. “So you work for Decorah Security?”

“Yes. I run the Decorah facility for patients who are in a coma.”

“You do?”

“Yes. Their brains are all hooked up to a virtual reality.”

“A what?”

“A place that’s not real. It’s all electronic—inside a big computer.” She flapped her arm in frustration. “I’m no good at explaining the technical part. But it’s a very special program that Decorah is running. Although the patients are unconscious, from their point of view, they’re living in a very plush hotel.”

“I don’t understand.”

Rachel laughed. “It’s pretty unusual. Even for this day and age. One of the technicians can explain when we have more time. Right now I’m going to take some blood so we can check out things like your glucose level, your red and white cell counts, cholesterol and a few other things.”

“What’s cholesterol?”

“I guess the short answer is—fat in your blood.”

“I haven’t had much fat lately. He had me on a healthy diet,” she said, not wanting to use the man’s name.

Rachel picked up on that and said, “Jonah told Grant the guy was going to hunt you—like exotic game.”

She shuddered. “Yes. He told me he’d killed five other women.”

“And you escaped.”

“I wouldn’t have—without Jonah. He figured out that the guy put a tracker on me. He wasn’t going to let me get away. He knew exactly where I was. He must have played the same game with the other women—letting them think they had a chance to escape.”

“That’s pretty horrible.” Rachel cleared her throat. “I have to ask—did he abuse you?”

Alice gave the doctor a direct look. “If confining me in a cell, giving me tasteless food, and forcing me to exercise my head off is abuse, then yes. But if you mean—did he rape me? No. It seemed like keeping me under his control and planning the hunt was the way he got his pleasure out of the situation.”

“And you came through it.”

“I think I was resigned to staying alive as long as I could—before the end.”

The doctor drew in a breath.

“Jonah saved me in another way. I had almost given up hope. But when he spoke to me mind to mind, it was like my whole world changed.”

“Yes.”

Suddenly she blurted the worry that had been clawing at her. “There are so many things here I don’t understand.”

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