Page 79 of Heart of Danger
Coming…as faint as the mist at dawn.
Yes, we’re coming for you.Adrenaline spiked through her system. This was him! Unmistakable, though she had no idea how she knew that. But it was, like recognizing someone’s voice or their face. Something in the quality of the whisper in her head.
…moving
Oh my God! She’d missed that, a sound at the very edge of her consciousness.
What?
“Go,” Mac said in her ear and she shot her closed fist up, their sign for halt. The three men stopped immediately and looked at her. She shook her head frantically, they couldn’t bother her now. She had to concentrate, focus, because the voice in her head was becoming fainter. She held her fist up high, closing her eyes to concentrate better.
She could sense Mac’s stillness and that of the other men, and then she banished them from her thoughts.
Tell me where you are.
Silence, but her head filled with pain. Wherever he was, he was hurting. She concentrated so hard she could feel an echo of his pain. Trying to keep all the avenues of communication open, she tried to analyze it. One part of her, the empathic part, linked to the man lying on a bed, perhaps dying and the other part of her, the neuroscientist, observing and analyzing.
The pain—it was systemic. Most pain is organic and focused. This was diffuse but intense. Fiery. Another wave of pain, coming from…
Catherine bent her head, trying to slow her breathing, trying to take her mind out of herself, throwing it over the wall of cypresses, through concrete walls, down laboratory corridors, down to…
Him.
What was the pain? Burning, throughout his body, under the skin. When another wave came, she was able to pinpoint its source. Under the clavicle. Coming in through his open shunt. Some kind of drug they were using on him whose side effects were excruciating pain and a dulling of the senses.
Were they killing him?
She hunkered even deeper inside herself.
Where are you…Lucius?
A start of surprise.
You know…who I am?
Yes, and your men are coming for you. Right now, Lucius.
Lucius…a wave of sadness swept over her so profound it nearly knocked her to her knees.I was Lucius, once. Was I?
You still are. We’re coming for you. But we have to know where you are.
Sadness, resignation.It’s too late. Will die, tomorrow.
No!She sent herself out on a wave of energy that came from deep in her bones, a fierce blast she didn’t know she had in her.We’re here! Minutes away! Where are you?
Close?The voice so faint, lightly tinged with hope.
Very close.
Can you come…now?
Yes, now. Where are you?
Silence. But she was in his head now, tied there by the faintest of bonds. A whisper and the bonds would break. She could hear what he heard, see what he saw. The drugs in his system were strong, but he was stronger. His vision blurred, focused. A masked face above him, strapping him down. The ceiling, moving.
They were moving him.
Where?She sent the message frantically.Where are you going?
