In My Skin (The Obsidian Files Book 3)

by Shannon McKenna

  She got closer to the edge, staring over. A long, soaring flight to freedom.

  Jada lifted her hot face to the blustery wind, letting it lift her damp hair off her neck. Her muscles bunched, preparing to run, to leap—

  Someone appeared right in in front of her. She tripped, stumbled to her knees.

  Her eyes fell on slender bare feet. Traveled up long golden legs. A white dress. Dark hair, lifted by the wind. Long dark eyes. High cheekbones, like an Aztec princess.

  “Zoe,” she whispered. “Am I dead? Is this real?”

  “What’s real?” Zoe asked. “Who cares? Be wherever you are. If it’s real to you, it’s real enough.”

  “Easy for you to say,” Jada said. “You got away. You’re free.”

  Zoe’s eyes were bleak. “Sorry, baby sister. They hid you from me. I tried so hard to find you. And you can’t be free when your heart’s locked in a cage.”

  “Now it’s my turn to escape,” Jada said. “Get out of my way. This is my chance.”

  “No,” Zoe said. “You’re not done. I won’t let you.”

  “You’re not even here. You’re just a ghost, so leave me alone. Let me go.”

  “I can’t,” Zoe insisted. “It’s not your time.”

  “You don’t control when I live or die!” Jada yelled in frustration. “If I go back, they’ll make me tell them about you and Luke and the others! They knocked a hole in my memory block and they’ll pry it out of me. No one had images of you after the fire, but I have them! All of you! In my head!”

  “So give them up,” Zoe said. “Do whatever you have to do. But live.”

  The vision swirled into a shriek of agony again. Pain, with no beginning or end.

  An eternity later, she bobbed up to the surface, seeing Hale’s face. He was bellowing questions. She was answering them, like a robot. No choice.

  She identified the man who had been in Daniela LaSalle’s apartment as D-14. One of Braxton’s primary group. A leader of the Midland Rebellion. One of the rebels who torched that research facility and slaughtered almost all of the researchers before vanishing without a trace.

  With positive ID, they could match D-14 to the verbal control codes Braxton had established for him years ago, and he could be safely neutralized.

  When she was done spilling her guts, Hale was no longer angry. He was in a festive mood, which was almost worse.

  “Excellent!” he said, chortling. “With control codes, I can move on the rogue without approval from the Committee. Weren’t you at Midlands for a while yourself?”

  “Briefly,” she said. “I was brought in to Midlands initially, but I got transferred after a few weeks to Urness Island. They had training groups for younger kids.”

  “Yes, yes, I see.” He barely heard her answer, he was so swept away by fantasies of his own bright future. “Well. This has been an expensive operation, and I don’t know what the fuck I’m going to say to George Metzer about his dead son, but if I bag a newly minted Manticore operative plus a Level Twenty-five Braxton operative from the Midlands Rebellion, that’s a fucking coup. That should give me immunity from retaliation from Metzer. You have a drone locked onto D-14?”

  “I used the satellite to track him until a drone was in place,” she said. “He drove to a motel. Stayed for a couple of hours. They’re driving north on the interstate right now.”

  “We need to take him down somewhere remote. No witnesses. I want the Level Fifteen squad ready to move on the double. Where’s E-677?”

  “Still unconscious, sir. You pain-wanded him.”

  Hale looked at E-677’s body, sprawled by the tank. “Oh. Fuck. Well, what are you waiting for? Wake him up and tell him to mobilize his crew. Control codes or no control codes, I’m not taking any chances with this sneaky son of a bitch. And I’m sure that Metzer’s going to want his son’s assassin in one piece. To play with.”

  “I’ll prepare the team myself, sir—”

  “No. You stay here. You’re too unpredictable right now. But I do want you to prepare the Committee presentation. A Manticore operative and a Midlander rogue.” Hale grinned nastily. “What a sacrificial offering that’ll be. This has to go just exactly right.”

  Jada’s stomach lurched. She clapped her hand to her mouth, but Hale didn’t notice. “Put in a request for twelve more Level Twenties from the Committee. We need to plan for some important visitors, R-48. This is going to be huge. Absolutely huge.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  He chuckled. “And when you’re done, get a bottle of chilled champagne, put on something sexy and come to my quarters. We’ll celebrate together. I’ll get a head start on reconditioning you. By hand.” He laughed unpleasantly. “You’ll be very good when I’m done with you. Hey! You’re spacing out again. Did you even hear me, R-48?”

  “Every word, sir.”

  “Yeah? What will you do after you requisition the Level Twenties?”

  “I’ll get a bottle of champagne and bring it to your room,” she said.

  “And what will you wear?”

  She hesitated for a fraction of a second before forcing the words out. “Something sexy.”

  Chapter 18

  They found Unit 67 of the E-Z-U-Store halfway down a seemingly endless double row of storage units in the sprawling outdoor complex. Luke stopped the SUV, and they both just stared at it for a moment before they got out.

  He entered the combination he’d found in Naldo’s chip. Amazingly, it worked. He raised the roll-up door with one long rattling shove.

  The two of them gazed in at the large metal cases, grouped in a precise cube in the middle of the dingy unit. They gleamed with unearthly brightness against the stained concrete floor.

  The place was deserted and eerily quiet. Just the desolate whine of the wind. There had been no one in the prefab structure near the entrance, no big surprise at six AM. The gate had been easy to open. The alarm needed only the barest nudge from his implant to deactivate. They had driven right into the place. As if they were expected.

  Luke’s senses were amped way up, but he picked up nothing that suggested a threat. Birds, bugs. An occasional truck on the nearby highway. A distant train whistle.

  “I don’t understand.” Dani’s voice was hushed. “How can it be this easy?”

  He shook his head. “Don’t worry. They’ll make up for it later.”

  She was in no mood for snark. “How come no one intercepted this shipment?” she demanded. “And why is it just sitting here unclaimed when Obsidian wants it so badly? Why aren’t we in the middle of a firefight right now?”

  Luke took a careful step into the unit. “Maybe Manticore’s security actually is like they advertise it. Once the package ships and the courier’s on his way, no one can force Manticore to say where they shipped the goods. They don’t know and they have no way to find out.”

  “The courier would know, right?”

  Luke shrugged. “If he survived. I think Naldo was done and Manticore was just using him up. But he got ’em a good one, in the end. Right where it hurt. Thanks to you.”

  Dani tugged her new jacket more closely around herself. “So how did Obsidian manage to chase Naldo down with all these safeguards?”

  “I’m betting they squeezed Manticore for Naldo’s tracer data,” Luke said. “But there are no traces on this equipment. At least not any my sensors can detect. We might be the only ones who know it’s here. Other than whoever delivered it.”

  Dani spun around, looking unnerved. “Something’s off,” she whispered.

  His eyes flicked over to meet hers. “It could be a trap,” he said.

  “Let’s load up and get the hell out of here,” she said.

  “Agreed.”

  Luke shifted his own gear around in the back of the SUV make room. They loaded the cases up quickly and drove out of the place. Just like
that. No explosions, no scream of challenge, no sniper fire.

  It almost creeped him out. Sneaky fuckers. Playing with him. Biding their time.

  His systems were on high alert, but as wigged out as he was, he didn’t trust his own perceptions. He’d probably be hyper-vigilant until the day he died.

  Dani didn’t say much as they drove through the depressed looking town of Serrati Flats, but she looked anxious and tight-lipped. “What now?” she asked as they got onto the highway. “Shall I find us a room? So we can look through the shipment?”

  “I rented a place already.”

  “When? I never saw you do that!”

  “On the way up,” he admitted. “In my head. I browsed local vacation rental places online. Sent the emails, did the bank transfer, got the security code for the gate and door. Grab the laptop. Take a look at the confirmation email, if you’re curious.”

  Dani opened the email and scrolled through the pictures. Her jaw dropped. “Good God! This place is huge! And super-luxurious.”

  “So? I liked the looks of it. We’ll have it all to ourselves.”

  “But…but eight bedrooms and twelve baths? A game room, a dedicated movie theater and an indoor swimming pool? Holy freaking shit! Seriously?”

  “I liked the lake,” he said defensively. “And the trees. And the security system.”

  “A one room cabin would have done the job. How much did it cost?”

  “Doesn’t matter,” he told her. “Braxton’s paying.”

  She looked alarmed. “But can’t they trace you if you use his money?”

  “Nope. I covered my tracks a thousand times over. Don’t worry.”

  She didn’t look reassured. Truth to tell, he’d chosen the outsize accommodations solely because of the bedsteads on view in the virtual tour. He’d seen one bed made of thick wrought-iron. Strong enough to hold the shackles for his wakey-wand session.

  In case he became dangerous.

  They wouldn’t hold indefinitely, but if worst came to worst, they would buy Dani the time she’d need to get the hell away from him. Maybe. But he’d explain that later.

  He wasn’t looking forward to that conversation.

  Luke couldn’t shake the feeling that he was putting Dani in greater danger by keeping her close to him. But on the other hand, she was already on their radar and in their files. Until he could figure out a better plan for her, the safest place in the world for her was behind his body.

  The fact that he fucking loved having her there was entirely coincidental.

  Right. He’d just keep telling himself that.

  They arrived at the gated driveway on the lakeside road in early afternoon. The security code opened it, and they wended their way through a park-like, fairy-tale forest.

  And there it was. A huge, rustic chalet with big windows on all three floors offering views of manicured woods, lake and hills. He entered another security code and led her inside, into an enormous front room with a wall of windows two stories high.

  They had the place completely to themselves, as he’d specified a preference for absolute privacy. But a fire had been lit for them and was crackling in a huge fireplace in the main room. Cushy couches were grouped around it.

  Too bad they weren’t actually here to play. It would have been fun.

  He got to work, hauling all the new equipment up to the bedroom with the wrought iron bed while Dani trailed behind him. She had very little to say as he rearranged the furniture, arranging the various devices around the bed.

  “I take it you have a plan?” she asked finally.

  “A general plan,” he replied. “I have to go through all the files. And, uh…a lot of it hinges on you.”

  “Me? In what way?”

  “You’re a nurse. I was hoping you’d help use this equipment.”

  “What? I’ve never seen anything like it. I don’t know what you think I can do.”

  “To start, run the imager,” he said. “And then thread the probe into my data port and get it through the traces to where it needs to be inside my brain. Operate the direct brain stimulation wand. I can’t do it myself. The placement of my implants and ports is going to be different from the Manticore implants in the literature. So we’ll have to improvise. To a certain extent.”

  She crossed her arms over her chest, frowning. “Yeah? How? You obviously have no idea what you’re doing. What’s liable to happen?”

  He shrugged. “My hope is that I get my memory back. Best case scenario.”

  “And worst case scenario?”

  He hesitated a little too long before replying. “Hard to say. Too many unknowns.”

  He pulled out the shackles.

  Dani’s heart rate and stress hormones spiked. “What do you intend to do with those?” she demanded.

  “They’re not for sex,” he said. “If that’s what you’re thinking.”

  “No. But what are they for? And where did you get them?”

  “A nasty corner of the deep web,” he said. “And they’re for me. For when you pulse the wand.”

  Her eyes went from uncomprehending to wide with horrified dismay. “Wait,” she said. “Back up. Back way the fuck up. You’ve been misrepresenting this.”

  “Of course, there’s risk involved,” he said. “We’re talking Braxton, after all. Criminally insane, but brilliant. So anything he devised is bound to have a very high risk to reward ratio.”

  “Don’t try to snow me, Luke. Are you asking what I think you are? To risk hurting you? Or even…killing you?”

  Luke lifted his hands, helpless. “Yeah, I guess I am. But I might not die.”

  Dani closed her eyes. “Oh,” she whispered. “So, would it make you a howling madman? Comatose? Put you into a persistent vegetative state?”

  “It might do nothing at all,” he said. “We don’t know until we try it.”

  “Don’t bullshit me,” she said harshly. “Spill it.”

  He sighed. “I’ll have seizures,” he admitted. “And it could trigger a recurrence of stim sickness. That’s what happens when you fight their deep brain programming. Pain, high fever, anxiety. Sometimes psychosis.”

  “Huh,” she muttered. “You don’t happen to have a crash cart in the back of that Porsche, do you?”

  “That’s why I have shackles,” he explained. “They’d give you time to get away.”

  Dani sank down onto the bed, and dug her fingers into her hair. “Great. You thought of everything.”

  “Dani,” he said softly. “Please.”

  “I know you want your memory back,” she said shakily. “Of course you do. But what if this fails? You could die on me. That’s not allowed, you fucker. I don’t like it when patients die on my shift.”

  He shook his head. “I don’t want to die.”

  “Stay as you are, then! Maybe time will give you your memory back. Maybe you just need to wait a little longer. Isn’t your life still worth it?”

  It took a minute for him to answer. “Two days ago, I would have said no,” he admitted. “But I can’t say that anymore.”

  “Um…I’m confused.”

  He cleared his throat. “I had nothing to lose, before. I genuinely gave no fucks whatsoever if this went bad on me. But you ruined that for me, Dani. That’s all over now.”

  “Don’t get carried away,” she said tartly. “We just met.”

  “True. But I was carried away in the first five minutes.”

  She harrumphed. “Don’t change the subject.”

  “I’m being honest,” he said. “I don’t know much about myself, but I do know how I feel about you.”

  “Let me head you off right there, and propose something totally nuts,” she said.

  “I’m listening,” he said warily.

  “Let’s run away together,” she said. “Leave all thi
s behind us. Whoever you were before, say goodbye to him unless he comes back to you naturally. Make a clean break. Mexico, Argentina, anywhere is fine. Fuck Manticore, fuck Obsidian. Fuck all of it.”

  Luke allowed himself the luxury of picturing it, for just a minute. Rolling around on the beaches on the Yucatan with Dani, rubbing coconut scented cream over her fabulous curves. Turquoise ripples over glittering white sand. Yeah.

  “What about Ivy?” he asked.

  “I was thinking about her, believe me. You’re not the center of the universe. We grab her somehow and we run like hell.” Dani’s mouth tightened. “I don’t want to have to do that alone. If this memory recovery thing of yours goes sideways.”

  “This is the thing about Obsidian,” Luke said. “They never give up. And now they’re hyper-focused on you. I’ll protect you, but I’m just one guy, and if they take me down—”

  “Don’t say that!”

  “If they take me down, you need backup,” he persisted. “You need people to turn to. Family. Safe haven. You and Ivy both, if we manage to rescue her. I can’t protect you alone. We need my people for that.”

  “If they exist,” Dani reminded him. “You’re just guessing. Hoping.”

  “They do,” he said stubbornly. “I’m sure of it.”

  “How about your girlfriend or fiancée or wife? Any of them likely to show up? Wouldn’t that be a hoot.”

  He flinched. “Not relevant.”

  “Hmm.” She shot him an ironic look. “I’ve heard that song before.”

  “Do not lump me in with the losers from your past,” he said.

  “Don’t worry, Luke,” she said quietly. “They pale in comparison to you.”

  An awkward silence fell. She wouldn’t look at him. He just got more and more anxious as the seconds ticked by.

  “So?” he prompted. “Will you help me?”

  Dani shot him an anguished look. “Luke, my job is to help people, not hurt them. Particularly not someone that I…care about.”

  “It’s on me, not you,” he said. “And it’ll happen whether you help or not. The only question is whether you’ll help me do it, or let me do it myself.”