Parker ran his hand over the wall. No laser. He looked up, using his flashlight. Ah, there. In the corner of the ceiling he could just make out the edge of a hidden camera. Someone was watching.
Still, he’d have to take his chances.
He took another step and another katana shot from the wall. He sidestepped it and moved to the middle of the passage. Another katana flew up from the floor. He leapt away, but not before the blade cut into the slacks of his suit. No, it wasn’t just his suit. He could feel the sting on his shin and knew he was bleeding, but he couldn’t stop to tend it.
And then he noticed a painting along the opposite wall.
Taking his light again, he studied it for a moment. It was a fierce black Japanese dragon with huge talons and a ferocious fur-like crest. There was another beside it. And a third.
Before Parker could contemplate the significance of the design, a blast of fire shot out from the first creature’s mouth.
He ducked just before the flames consumed his face.
He pivoted in a squatting position and was about to rise when another burst of flame came from the opposite wall about two feet from the floor. He jumped up as high as he could, feeling the heat on his toes as he missed it. He came down hard on the floor.
Dear Lord. Who could have built such a demonic obstacle course? Someone with a juvenile imagination and a great deal of money. And a love for video games.
He’d make a run for it, he decided.
But as he rose from the floor, a whizzing disk flew through the air toward his head.
He ducked in time, but it sliced the top of his shoulder. More blood. Again he tried to get up and run. Another spinning disk flew toward him.
Ninja stars, he thought as he ducked again. Before he could move another one whizzed past his head, nicking his ear. He rolled, got up, jumped and dodged the viscous stars all the way to end of the passage.
By the time he reached it, he had multiple cuts to his arms and legs. And his suit was shredded.
He couldn’t think about that now. He threw himself against the wall. It opened into a hidden passage, and he fell to the floor in complete darkness.
Stinging from his cuts, he reached for his flashlight. Relieved he hadn’t lost it in the melee, he switched it on. And then he saw what he’d been hoping for.
A concrete staircase descending downward.
He got up and hurried down it.
Chapter Forty
Miranda felt her way along the rough cave-like wall, her flashlight in her free hand, wondering what in the world had happened.
She’d thought Parker would be right behind her. She’d heard him call out for her just as she went down the manhole. By the time she’d reached the golden elevators, she thought he’d catch up to her, but he hadn’t.
That had disturbed her, but she couldn’t wait. A door to her left had opened and she’d taken it, assuming that was the way Holloway would have gone. But she’d seen nothing of him, either, since she’d been wandering around in this damp-smelling catacomb.
She should stop and make her way back to the elevators. Try to find Parker and get Erskine and his men down here to search for Holloway. But she had no idea where she’d come in.
She was lost.
Who installs golden elevators in an underground cave, anyway? Somebody rich. Somebody with a sadistic imagination. The same type of person who would use mind-control drugs on a young woman desperate to become an actress.
Her fingers were getting raw from feeling her way along the jagged rock. Overhead the rock became an uneven arch. Beneath her was more rock, slippery with moisture. The tunnel seemed to go round and round in circles. It had to have been hewn out by some boring machine. How did Iwasaki, or whoever was funding him, manage that without anyone seeing them?
Money, again.
They must have paid the crew top dollar. They must have had guards of some sort posted to shoo away any curious onlookers. And if anyone higher up was asking questions, they’d be bought off.
Could a Los Angeles gang pull that off? She didn’t think so. This was bigger than that.
Screw it, she thought. Holloway wasn’t down here. She’d have to find her way back to those elevators. She turned around and felt for the other side of the cave. She followed it back to where she thought she had been, but the craggy walls didn’t look familiar.
Of course, everything here looked both alike and different.
Swallowing down the urge to panic, she moved on. She’d gone about fifty feet when her fingers touched air.
She turned her head and saw there was another passage, a fork forming a tunnel to the right and one to the left. The one she had come down?
Maybe. Or had she passed this way already?
A tingle went down her spine. This was the way. She was sure of it.
Drawing in breath, she headed down the fork on the right. Around a corner, the landscape changed. There was light here. And smooth walls with ninety degree angles at the ceiling instead of the irregular dome of hewn rock. Shiny linoleum on the floor. Walls freshly painted in eggshell white. Everything looked brand new. Drab, but new.
And looking suspiciously like a hospital wing.
Up ahead she saw a door along the hall that looked like it might lead to a patient’s room. She put her flashlight away and hurried toward it. She tried the latch.
Locked. No window to peek inside.
Two car lengths away was a second door. She hustle over and tried it. Also locked.
She spotted another one across the hall and sprinted over to it. No luck with this one, either.
Was anybody in these rooms? Or were they awaiting fresh victims? Was Audrey locked in one of them?
She didn’t have her pick set with her. She hadn’t thought she’d need it on a movie set. She put a hand to her head. It had been nearly twenty hours since she’d gotten dressed that morning. It seemed like years ago.
But a curving passage lay before her and there were more doors to try. She did so, one by one. Finally, she reached the last door at the end of the hall. If this one didn’t open, she’d go back and find Parker. He had to be here somewhere.
She put her hand on the latch and felt a sensation that was both strange and familiar. Like caterpillars crawling up her back, plaguing her nerves with their delicate legs and hairy bodies.
The girl with the gift.
Holding her breath, she pushed down the door handle. It opened easily.
What she saw inside made her heart stop.
This was no hospital room. It was more like a prison cell with cinder block walls, a single bed, no windows, and little furniture. But it was the smell that hit her the hardest. Like the sensation she felt, it was all too familiar. The rank rotting of human flesh.
Miranda put a hand over her nose and mouth to fight down the inevitable nausea.
On a thin mattress on a plain bed frame lay a young woman. Her skin glistened with ruptured blisters, but she hadn’t begun to bloat yet. A few flies had found their way into this fortress and were buzzing around the body. Her eyes and mouth were open toward the ceiling, as if she had been screaming, begging to be spared from some unimaginable agony.
Miranda instantly knew who she was from the bloody stub at the end of her right foot. Her big toe was missing.
This was Rebecca Duncan, the twenty-six-year-old homeless girl whose toe she’d found in the abandoned mall off Memorial.
Her head began to swim. She had to find Parker. She had to get Erskine and his officers down here now.
She turned and ran back down the hallway.
Chapter Forty-One
Drew clasped his sides and rocked in his chair as he convulsed with laughter. He couldn’t help it. This felt so good.
Still laughing, he wiped the tears away with his knuckle and watched the screen again. “Look at that, Phin! Look at him jump.”
They were in the war room, watching the action on one of the huge computer screens.
Phin’s whiney high-pi
tched nerd laugh rang in his ears.
Drew slapped Phineas on the back and took a swig from his hard cider bottle. He pointed to the screen. “Look, he’s bleeding.”
“We almost got him!” Phin cried as if he’d just scored a hundred points.
“We did.” Drew giggled again. He couldn’t help himself. He hadn’t had this much fun in a long time.
Wade Parker, the high and mighty ace detective of the southeast was dancing to their tune now, he was completely at their mercy. Just like when they were kids throwing rocks at squirrels in the woods and giving themselves points for the best shot.
“He’s good,” Phineas said. “Are you sure he won’t get through?”
“Of course, I’m sure. He won’t last much longer. Switch to Hall Two.”
Phin pressed some keys and the tall skinny Curt Holloway appeared on the screen, weapon drawn, he inched cautiously down a dark corridor.
“He’s searching for Experiment Two.”
“And he’ll find her soon.” Drew had to giggle again.
“You’ve got her primed?”
“Locked and loaded and buzzed to the hilt. Wait ’til you see it. She’s going to rip him apart.”
Phin glanced at a screen to his side. “The cops are still rummaging around outside.”
“Doesn’t matter. We’ll handle them, too. But first, I’m going to take care of this one.” Drew reached over Phin’s shoulder and switched to the view of the Prison Hall and the dark-haired woman running.
“She found the body.”
“And now she’s heading for the lab.”
“Just as we planned. Miranda Steele has met her match.” Drew got to his feet, drained the rest of his bottle and tossed it in the trash. Then he picked up the bottle of the elixir and wiggled it in the air before he slipped it into his pocket. “And here I come, ready or not.”
“Just don’t screw it up.”
“Like I keep saying, you worry too much.”
Chapter Forty-Two
“Stop and think. This way,” Miranda muttered to herself as she turned down another passage. But where that elevator should have been was another wall. A dead end.
She turned around and made her way back. She should have counted her steps when she left the elevator. She should have made notes in her phone, but she’d thought she had her bearings.
Not anymore.
There was a light up ahead. At least she could see the walls of the cave now. She could hear a generator running somewhere. It looked so familiar. This had to be where she’d come in.
She didn’t like closed in spaces like this. She felt as if the walls were closing in on her. They couldn’t actually do that, could they? She wasn’t sure. She’d been up almost twenty-four hours. She was tired and disoriented. But she couldn’t stop now. Not that she had a choice.
At last she reached the end of the tunnel. The light she’d followed was suspended over a sliding door.
No knob or latch. She felt along the walls for a control panel. She found a button hidden behind a recess in the rock. She pressed it, and the door slid open. She stepped through it into a wide, brightly lit hall.
But there were no elevators here.
Here the walls were high and straight and lined with sheet metal, giving the hall an industrial look. A steel ramp lay before her. A safety rail had been erected along one side of it. At the end of the ramp lay about ten feet of linoleum like the floor of the hospital-like area she’d found earlier.
In the middle of the wall was a large steel door with rounded corners.
It looked thick, as if it barred entrance to a place where dangerous experiments were conducted. Like mind-control experiments? The idea set her nerves on edge.
Across from her lay another ramp matching the one she stood on. It too had a door like the one she’d just come through.
She heard a creak and realized the door was opening. A figure stepped through it and came down the incline. He stopped at the bottom staring straight at her.
She recognized him from his picture. Black eyes. Pure black hair. Smooth, unblemished complexion. Dressed in his black leather jacket. But he was taller than she thought he’d be. And more muscular. And meaner looking.
Drew Iwasaki.
His lips parted in a sinister grin. “Hello, Ms. Steele. So happy to meet you. Especially under these circumstances.”
The mockery in his tone made her ill and angry.
She nodded toward the steel door between them. “Is Audrey Wilson in there?” she demanded.
He just stood there, staring and smiling.
“I’ve already found Rebecca Duncan.”
He chuckled, as if he knew that. As if he’d planned for her to find the homeless girl. He took a step toward her. “Don’t you want to know about your husband, Wade Parker? Don’t worry. We’re taking care of him, too.”
What did that mean? Iwasaki knew Parker was here. But where was he? Did Drew know about Holloway? Fear rattled through her. And rage. If this bastard had done anything to Parker, Erskine was going to have to arrest her for first degree murder.
He started up the ramp toward her.
She reached into her waistband and pulled out her Beretta. Aiming it more accurately than she had at the gun range earlier, she watched him stop in his tracks.
“Let’s try this again. Tell me where Parker and Audrey Wilson are.”
His black eyes glowing, he eyed her hungrily. “My, aren’t we brave? But you won’t shoot me. Without me, you could be lost down here forever.” He started up the ramp again.
“I’ll take my chances. Get back or you’ll wish you did.”
He let out a sickening high-pitched giggle. “Oh, you aren’t going to use that weapon on me.”
He had a point. She needed the information this creep had. She should shoot him in the leg instead, but he was close now. Harder to get that angle.
Still, she lowered the gun, aiming for his kneecap. Before she could pull the trigger, he lunged forward fast as lightning, reached for her wrist, gave it a twist.
An Aikido move. She knew it from sparring with Parker. Aikido was his specialty, along with several other martial arts. But that didn’t keep her from letting out a yelp of shock.
She kicked out at Drew’s leg, tried to wrap her foot around his shin to knock him off balance and bring him down. She knew martial arts too. But as she struggled to hold onto her gun, his thumb dug into the tender crease of her wrist, loosening her grip.
She gritted her teeth against the pain.
And then he pulled her over.
Down they went, tumbling over each other. The gun flew out of her hand and skittered across the metal ramp.
Damn. She was blowing this. Her instincts were off. Probably from wandering around disoriented for so long. And from lack of sleep.
But she wasn’t going to let this creep get the best of her. She was better than this.
As they rolled toward the railing, she pulled her arm back and jabbed as hard as she could. Her fist landed square on his jaw, and she thought she heard a snap.
His dark eyes turned to flames. Grabbing her throat he rolled her over. “I was going to let you live, bitch. But now you’ve changed my mind.”
“Me, too.”
She pressed her hands together, pushed them between his forearms and snapped them apart. Her fists became motors. She pulled herself up and smacked at his face again and again like it was a punching bag in the gym. He tried to fight back but he had to cover himself with his hands and roll away. She freed herself of his body and began to crawl down the ramp to her gun.
Inches before she reached it, Drew recovered and grabbed her leg.
She tried to shake him off. “Let go of me, you bastard, or else.”
“Or else what?”
Tightening her stomach muscles, she raised her torso as high as she could and lunged for her gun.
Her fingers touched the handle. Struggling with all she had, she worked the weapon toward her hand. Drew began
to pull her away by her leg. But she had it. She had her gun.
She lifted it from the floor and spun around. “Or else this.”
She fired into the wall. The bullet pierced the metal behind him, making an inch deep dent.
Staring at the damage, Drew let her go and scrambled to his feet.
Miranda got to hers, holding the gun on him.
“You can’t do that,” he cried.
“I just did.”
“You bitch, you.”
“Now, you’re going to open that door.”
His chest heaving he glared at her. He glanced once toward the door. Then he leapt into the air. His leg came up so lightning quick, she barely saw it before it slammed into the side of her head.
Again she fell to the floor. This time her gun flew all the way across to the other ramp.
Damn, he was good, she thought, her head ringing and burning with pain. She blinked hard and forced air into her lungs. He hadn’t knocked her out. She still had her bearings. He wasn’t going to get the best of her again.
He came at her again, as she knew he would, and just before he lunged, she raised her knees to her chin and kicked out as hard as she could.
Two could play at kickboxing.
Her feet struck him hard in the chest. His eyes bulged with surprise as he flew across the hall. The back of his head hit the railing with a loud clunk, and he slid to the floor in a heap.
Out cold.
Miranda scooped up her Beretta and scrambled to her feet. She raced to the thick metal door and studied the control panel.
No telling which button would open it. She’d try all of them, if she had to. But at the first one she pressed, the door slid open.
There was another ramp here. She moved down it and stared at the huge space. The air was cold and smelled of disinfectant, strange chemicals, and—something living. The sterile-looking floor was marked with yellow-and-black warning tape. There were fluorescent lights and huge shafts crisscrossing the high ceiling. Cages were stacked along the walls with small animals in them.
Mind Bender Page 18
