Page 27 of Dan

“It wasn’t shock therapy. They were torturing me. They were torturing me to get what was in my head,” she sniffed.

“I know, baby. I heard it all. We’re going to stop them, don’t you worry.”

“Who does that to their child?” she cried. Luke walked in, breathing heavily as if he’d run all the way to the clinic.

“Luke, are you okay?” asked Dan.

“I-I don’t know. I felt this overwhelming urge to be near Finley. It was like I could feel her pain, her crying, and my head was killing me.” Finley turned, smiling up at him.

“See, you are my surrogate father.” She hugged his waist, resting her head against his mid-section. Luke could only hold her, rubbing her back.

“You’re okay now,” he said with concern. “What happened?”

“We took her back to the treatments,” said Ashley. “I don’t think they were shock treatments at all. I think it was just torture to get her to tell them what she knew. Whoever this Dr. Gunderson is or was he was asking her questions about her work, what she saw at her parents’ manufacturing facility, all of it. They even asked what she knew about stealth.”

“Fuck,” muttered Luke. Finley pulled back, staring up at him.

“I didn’t tell them anything,” she said, shaking her head. “I told them I didn’t think it was possible. I lied. I knew when I was saying it that it was a lie, but I didn’t want them to know how to do it. How would I have known to not tell them that?”

“I don’t know, honey, but I’m damn glad you didn’t.” Luke looked at the others in the room. “So, this is what we think all this is about? Someone is trying to get us to be exposed?”

“It looks that way, Luke,” said Ryan.

“Well, then. Let’s figure this shit out and expose them first. It’s time we hunt.”

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

“Finley, didn’t your parents understand their own technology?” asked Luke as they walked back toward the cafeteria.

“No,” she laughed, shaking her head. “My parents inherited YZX from my grandparents. They both had degrees in business but didn’t understand engineering or math at all. I feel certain that’s why they wanted me to work for them.”

“I’m certain of that as well,” growled Dan. “They wanted that beautiful brain of yours to find a way to do all kinds of unsavory things.”

“I wouldn’t have done it,” she said.

“Honey, I know you wouldn’t have done it intentionally, but they were willing to torture their own daughter to get to what was inside your brain. I don’t know how far they would have gone, but I don’t want to know. They knew that you were the secret to their future success, and they knew that you weren’t about to do it knowing what they planned.”

“What did they plan?” she asked with confusion.

“That’s what we need to find out,” said Luke. “You already know that we use stealth technologies on almost everything we have here, including the entire compound.”

“Yes,” she nodded. “Paige and Ryan were telling me about the technology. It’s positively marvelous, and I think I can improve upon it with some tweaks of how the electronic countermeasures are done.” Luke and Dan stared at her with raised eyebrows.

“Right. Sure. The electronic countermeasures,” said Dan. Finley laughed, shaking her head.

“Sorry. It’s just the way we’re able to interfere with any incoming electronic equipment attempting to locate us or our devices.”

“Oh, okay. That makes sense,” said Luke. “So, you can improve on that?”

“Definitely. I think once we try these new measures, it will be virtually undetectable. Right now, on occasion, you have these mirage-like images that happen, making people take a second glance in your direction. My plan is to wipe those out completely.”

“Damn,” muttered Luke. He turned back to Ryan and Paige, both smiling in his direction. “Is that possible?”

“She gave us some new calculations to try yesterday,” said Ryan. “We’ve got the system ready to move over into the new reads. So far, it’s working better than we thought.”

“How can you…” Luke stopped, slamming into something. He cussed, grabbing his knee. “Fuck! What the hell? What did I hit?”

“It works!” laughed Finley. She hugged Ryan and Paige, laughing. “We thought we’d try it on something smaller at first, and it worked!”

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