Mind Echoes (Book 2 in the Body Shifters Trilogy)

by Leslie O'Kane

  “Allie, Daniel, go home,” Jake said. “This is my battle now. Like it was when it all began...and like I wish it had remained.”

  Allie got a lump in her throat. She looked at Jennifer One. “Test the new circuit on me instead, Jennifer. That way, if it doesn’t work, Jake can fix it.”

  Jennifer grinned. “That’s a generous offer. And an excellent idea.”

  “Too bad I had an accident with it a couple of minutes ago,” Jake said, glaring at Allie. He pulled fragments of an electronic device from the pocket of his jeans.

  Jennifer One groaned and whirled around to glare at Kathleen. “I told you to watch him like a hawk the whole time he had Elony’s memory device!”

  “ You were the one who gave it to him to test the prototype with,” Kathleen growled back. “And I got distracted by needing to ensure that Daniel didn’t shoot you!”

  “Fine,” Jennifer said through gritted teeth, pivoting once again. “New ground rules—all of you stay. Jake, this either works on both of us, or there will be hell to play.”

  “No, deal, Jennifer,” Jake said, shaking his head. “Daniel gives you his gun. In exchange, he and Allie get to leave. I’ll stay of my own volition, and after you’re satisfied the procedure worked on me, I’ll perform it on you. Kathleen won’t be able to both perform the procedure and train a gun on me.”

  “I’m not going to leave you like this, Jake,” Allie said. “I can’t. I have to stay with you.”

  Jake started to protest, but she saw something shift in his gaze. He grabbed her hand and gave it a squeeze. She could tell that he was scared, and probably almost as frightened as she was.

  Jennifer held out her hand to Daniel. “Give me your gun, Daniel, and leave.”

  “No, I’m going to stay with my friends.” He patted the gun at the small of his back. “We’ll leave together afterwards.”

  “Suit yourself.” She shifted her focus to Jake. “Go lie down on your stomach on the operating table in the surgery room,” Jennifer ordered.

  Jake released Ellie’s hand. He led the way as the five of them entered the next room, then he lay in a prone position on the table. Jennifer scrubbed his neck then swabbed the surface with a sharp-smelling antiseptic. “Since Jake and I will have to have these same pointy terminals pushed into our flesh, I don’t want any germs or contaminants. Hold still, Mr. Westland.” She pressed the device into the base of his skull.

  Allie closed her eyes. She was reliving the moment when she was bleeding out and Aaron Croft had pressed a memory device into her skull to steal her memory. She could recall the prick of the circle of a dozen pins jabbing her skin. At the same time, her heart was breaking at the thought of what the device was doing to Jake’s brilliant mind.

  When she opened her eyes, Jennifer was keeping time with an eye on her wristwatch. Soon she removed the device from the base of Jake’s skull; the procedure took less than a minute.

  Jake promptly sat up on the examination table. She saw a flash of alarm on Jake’s face when he looked at her.

  “How are you feeling, Jake?” Jennifer asked.

  “Fine,” he said. “Where am I? Did I hit my head or something?”

  She shined a penlight into his eyes, studying his pupils. “My name is Dr. Suzanne Anderson-Jones. That’s who I am on the outside, at least. On the inside, I’m Dr. Jennifer McGavin. My late husband and I tapped into the full potential of your memory device. We were able to transfer one person’s mind into another person’s body. Several months have passed since we did this download. You’ve been running around for the last eight months in your current body.”

  “You’re either lying through your teeth, or....” His voice drifted off as he looked at his hands, then his torso and legs. Jennifer handed him a small mirror. “Oh, my God. What have I—” He glanced around the room, his features registering no recognition of any of them, until he caught sight of Daniel. He widened his eyes and started to say Daniel’s name, but stopped and glared at Jennifer. “You’re Jennifer McGavin? You subverted my work! It was never designed to be used this way! It was only for Alzheimer’s patients, to refresh their own memories!”

  “Nevertheless, Jake, here we are,” Jennifer said, spreading her arms and giving him a slight bow.

  “I’m Elony Montgomery,” Allie said, unable to maintain her silence a moment longer. “You interviewed me when I tried to get an internship as a high school junior.”

  “I remember Elony. You aren’t her.”

  “She’s in a different body,” Daniel said. “And so is Jennifer. She duplicated her mind download on two different kidnap victims.”

  Jake rose, stiff-legged and awkward, and looked at his reflection in a small mirror above the sink. “Why are any of us in different bodies? He tapped his chest with all five fingers of his hand. “This guy used to be a patient at the trauma center. I don’t understand what the hell is going on!” He scanned the room. “Who’s she?”

  “Kathleen Collins. Remember me?”

  “No. We’ve never met.”

  “The doctor and I hope you’re telling us the truth. In a sense you have met me. Suzanne and I are different versions of the same person. When you find a good thing, you make copies. But enough chit chat. I need to run a Magnetoencephalography scan on you.”

  “Why?”

  “So that I can tell if your current brain patterns match those when we first took them,” Jennifer One explained. “Back when you were in your old, blobby body.”

  “No. You have no right to do a single thing to me without my expressed consent.” He stepped toward the door. “I’m leaving.”

  Kathleen trained her gun on him, aiming at his heart. “I’ll shoot you before you take another step.”

  “Please do what she says, Jake,” Allie said.

  “You’ll be lucky if you can cross the room in the first place,” Kathleen said. “Your mind thinks it’s in your original body. It has to adjust. By the way, what is fifty seven times seventy six?”

  “Three thousand five hundred ninety one,” Jake promptly replied.

  “Good,” Jennifer and Kathleen said in unison.

  “Let’s run the damned MEG scans and get on with it,” Jake said.

  Allie felt so on edge that she was getting sick to her stomach. According to Jake’s note, at least, the piggybacked new circuit should not have erased Eric’s memories, but rather, many of Jake’s memories from the last several months would diminish. She was in a no-win situation. She had to hope that he had truly forgotten her, so that he might be able to pass the MEG scan.

  Jake stumbled as he started to walk across the room, knocking Allie off-balance as well. “Jeez, I’m sorry, Miss. I feel so weird,” he said.

  “That’s normal,” Jennifer said. “Your brain is adjusting to a new-to-you body. Even though you’ve actually been in it for several months now.”

  “Are you all right?” Allie grabbed his arm to steady him. Jake had warned that the process of erasing memories would be painful. It was hard to know if he’d made that up just to discourage her from trying to take his place.

  “Help me to the chair,” he said to Daniel, who rushed toward them.

  “We’d better test his oxygen levels,” Kathleen said to Suzanne. The two doctors grabbed a monitor and wheeled it toward them.

  As soon as they turned away, Jake grabbed Daniel’s arm. She realized then that he’d faked his dizziness so that the Jennifers wouldn’t detect the microphone’s presence when they ran a Magnetoencephalography (MEG)on him. “Get Allie out of here,” he whispered to Daniel. “It didn’t work.”

  Chapter 28

  Jake insisted he was fine, and the Jennifers ushered Jake into a second room that contained three large types of medical equipment that Allie couldn’t begin to identify. With Daniel and Allie looking on, they sat him in a chair, hooked electrodes to his scalp and positioned the large helmet-like apparatus over his head, which looked like a gigantic blow drier. Meanwhile, Allie made it clear to Daniel and Jake t
hat she was not going to allow them to shield her from whatever Fate had in store. Nevertheless, Daniel and Jake advised Allie to leave three more times.

  “Nobody cares what you think,” the Jennifers both said in unison to Daniel, when he advised her a fourth time to leave with him. Then Kathleen added, “They should both have to stay.”

  “You allowed Melissa to escape,” Allie snarled at Kathleen. The tension was killing her, and she felt unable to control her temper. This, she knew, was the Alexis part of her personality rearing its head. “Why? You couldn’t stand to hurt your biological sister, could you?”

  “Maybe that’s it,” Kathleen replied as if uninterested. She was comparing the initial computerized readouts of the MEG. “The prefrontal lobe is hyperactive,” Kathleen said to Jennifer One. “Otherwise, the scans are identical. Come take a look.”

  Daniel took a step toward the computer screen as Kathleen took a step back. In one swift movement, she grabbed Daniel’s gun and kicked the back of his knees. Allie gasped as he fell to the floor.

  Both Jennifers broke into identical peals of laughter. “So much for your serving as Ellie’s bodyguard.”

  Watching this, Jake ducked down in his chair and yanked his electrodes off within a couple of seconds. “That’s it. I’m done playing nice.”

  Daniel sprang to his feet.

  Kathleen whipped out her own handgun from behind her back and pointed it at Jake, and the other gun at Daniel. “So are we,” she declared. “ Now I don’t have to outshoot you. I can simply pull both triggers at once.”

  “You’ve got what you wanted,” Allie said. “The prototype works. Let us go.”

  “Don’t be stupid, Allie,” Jennifer One said. “We wanted you here to witness Jake’s little procedure. To have you walk in on us of your own volition. We were never going to let you go. Your mind twin, Melissa, on the other hand, wasn’t supposed to escape.” Jennifer glared at Kathleen, then shifted her fiery glare back at Jake. “Sit back down. We’re rerunning the MEG from the beginning.”

  Allie’s heart started to race. She could see fear in Jake’s eyes. She knew that he wanted to protect her from whatever would happen once Jennifer realized that Jake’s design was the opposite of what she wanted. Jennifer would likely kill her in front of Jake to make sure that Jake suffered mightily for his deceit.

  “There’s no need for a second test,” Kathleen said. “I’ve seen enough. The MEG is perfect. It’s identical to the one I ran when you were first transferred into the host body.”

  Allie was stunned. That wasn’t what Jake had indicated just minutes ago when he asked Daniel to leave with her. Nor was it what he warned them about in the letter.

  “You just now stated that the short-term memory differed between the two MEGs,” Jennifer One pointed out.

  “That could be caused by differences in his adrenalin levels during the two tests,” Kathleen said. “I ran his first MEG when he was my clueless employee, as you’ll remember.”

  “Of course I remember.” She studied Jake’s features and sighed. “I know better than to trust you any farther than I can throw you. It’s clear, though, that the procedure can do no worse than to have no effect on the subject whatsoever.” She stepped toward Kathleen, holding out her hands. “Give me the guns, and let’s give it a whirl.”

  “You’re going to run it on me first?” Kathleen asked in obvious surprise.

  “Yes. We don’t want you shifting back into Kathleen.”

  “That’s true, but we won’t know if it’s had any effect on me whatsoever. I don’t have any memories of being Kathleen yet. You’re the one with memories of being the exasperatingly kind Suzanne Jones. Besides, you have to go first,” Kathleen said. “ I’m the one and only person here who knows how to use a gun and won’t hesitate to use it.”

  “We’re wasting precious time,” Jennifer growled. “Let’s get the damned thing over with. The sooner I can get rid of the cloyingly sweet Suzanne Anderson, the sooner I can go back to being decisive and successful.” She looked at Jake. “Kathleen is going to be holding the gun while you, Jake, perform the procedure on me. If anything goes wrong, Kathleen can and will kill all three of you.”

  A buzzer sounded. Jennifer whirled around toward a small black-and-white television set mounted on the wall in the corner of this small room. “Aha,” she said with a grin, “I’m afraid Melissa won’t be waiting in your car. We laid a little trap for her that she found impossible to resist.”

  Kathleen chuckled and shook her head. “Like they say, nice guys finish last.” She sneered at Daniel. “Shortly after you arrived, we started blasting a signal to interfere with whatever bugging device frequencies you were using. She’d have to switch channels to try to get a clearer feed, and I recorded a plea for her to come help, and to use a side entrance to get inside. That led her straight to a self-locking windowless room. She’s trapped yet again. Look at the security TV if you don’t believe me.”

  “Hello, Ellie number two,” Jennifer said into a microphone. “Welcome. I was expecting you. Sorry you can’t see us, but we can see you.” Allie looked at the screen. There was a large box against the wall behind Mellie. “What’s in the box?” Jennifer asked.

  “Nothing,” Mellie answered. “It’s just a trick I employ to get people on the inside of buildings to open locked doors for me. I carry an empty box, pretending it’s heavy.”

  “So, sister, dear,” Kathleen said in haughty tones to Mellie, “you’re going to want to stay put. I’m keeping an eye on the screen. The camera’s right above the back door where you entered. If you leave the immediate area, one of your friends here is dead. You got that?”

  Mellie nodded her head. Even on the black-and-white TV screen, she looked petrified.

  After turning off the microphone, Jennifer unlocked a drawer, and removed a memory-storage device. She handed it to Jake. “Rather than desert the TV screen, I’ll make do on the exam table in here. It’s not comfy, so make this quick. She sat down on the table, then lay on her stomach. “My second Jennifer has a loaded gun, Jake. Don’t try anything stupid.”

  Allie watched as Jake separated his own memory device from the prototype and put it in his pocket. He then pushed the memory device that Jennifer had given him into the prototype. Throughout the process, Jake’s face looked ashen. He was perspiring heavily. Allie knew now that he had told the truth about the procedure being painful. She glanced up at Daniel, standing right beside her. From the tension in his features, she knew that he, too, was aware of Jake’s physical distress, but neither of them was willing to say a word with the Jennifers right there listening.

  Jake expertly pushed the piggybacked device into the nape of Jennifer’s neck. He swayed a little on his feet. Allie’s hands were feeling clammy as her stomach churned with nerves. She didn’t understand how Kathleen was failing to pick up on Jake’s declining condition.

  Jake gave Allie a feeble smile. It would have looked to Kathleen as if he’d simply given her a flirtations grin. Allie knew better. It unnerved Allie all the more; she took it as a silent apology, that he’d done his last act on this earth. She got a lump in her throat.

  A minute later, Jake removed the device, and Jennifer sat up, her face quickly clouding over with rage. “It didn’t work,” Jennifer said. “I remember everything. Including teaching those brats in a classroom. While they called me Miss Anderson.”

  “It’s a delayed reaction,” Jake said. “It can take up to seventy-two hours for the memories to fade. I already explained that to you. I told you that yesterday, as I was explaining the functions of section K-five of the schematic.”

  Jennifer grabbed her skull with both hands. “My head! It’s killing me! The pain is intolerable!”

  “The headaches will go away,” Jake muttered.

  “This shouldn’t be happening in the first place,” she snarled. “I didn’t have any headaches the first time I shifted into Suzanne’s body.”

  “The neural chemistry had to be intensified t
his time in order for the neuron synapses to in the temporal lobe to be permanently altered.”

  “I’m a brain surgeon, you little snot!” She glared at Jake with murderously hateful eyes. “Don’t try to spout medical word-soup at me and think I’ll lap it up like I’m just another goddamned idiot patient!”

  She snatched her memory chip, still seated in the new device, out of Jake’s hand. “It’s hot to the touch!” She sniffed. “My memory chip smells like someone took a soldering iron to it.”

  “The new function of the micro-circuitry in the old device must have caused a short,” Daniel said on Jake’s behalf.

  “Don’t give me that bull!” She glared at Jake. “You did this intentionally! I’m sure your memory chip was also fried. What did you do to me!?”

  “You’re right.” Jake removed his device from his pocket. “My memory chip was also fried, Jennifer. You can no longer reuse them and hurt anyone else. It’s over. For both of us.”

  She turned her fiery eyes toward Kathleen, who was standing a few feet away, watching with a slight grin on her face. “Shoot him, Kathleen!”

  “Hell, no. If his headache is as bad as yours, shooting him would be an act of mercy.”

  “Give me the gun, and I’ll do it, then!”

  “Look at your hands,” Kathleen scoffed. “You can’t aim a gun with them shaking like that.”

  “I. Am. In. Pain! For God’s sake, get me the morphine!” Jennifer snarled. She pointed at the door. “Go into the storage room. Now. Did you think I wouldn’t have any Oxycotin on hand? This is a medical center for God’s sake.”

  Kathleen handed Jennifer the small handgun that Daniel had gotten from the pawn shop, then left the room. This might be their best chance to escape. Allie glanced at Daniel, who made a slight jerk of his head at the closed-circuit television set. Mellie was no longer on the screen.

  Allie needed a diversion to keep Jennifer from looking at the screen. “Let me get you some water,” she said. She dashed over to the sink, but couldn’t find any weapon-like objects. The most she could do was hurl a cup of water in Jennifer’s face. That seemed pointless, but she poured the water anyway.