Jake, she realized, looked ready to keel over. Please. Don’t let this be the end for Jake, Allie prayed. If someone has to die, let it be me.
“You look like you’re running a fever,” Daniel said, stepping directly in front of Jennifer, blocking his view.
“Back up,” Jennifer demanded. “You’re not taking your gun from me.”
Daniel took a half step back, but Jake rallied himself enough to stand at his side, still blocking her view of the TV screen.
“You did this for nothing,” Jennifer growled at Jake. “I transferred my own mind into Melissa before I transferred Elony’s. Sooner or later, she’ll turn into a third teammate of Kathleen’s and mine.”
Jake snorted. “That’s never going to happen. The worst that will do to Mellie is cause the occasional nightmare.”
Daniel put his arm around Jake’s shoulder, supporting Jake’s unsteady knees. Allie realized at once that he, too, was hoping the three of them could escape, but that Jake was now physically their weakest link.
“She’ll start to regain my memories, you dimwit,” Jennifer snarled. “Even if you kill me on the spot. I’ll still be here to fight you. And she’ll know where the other chip is.”
“ What other chip?” Jake asked, obviously trying to hide his surprise.
“The investigators didn’t get all of the prototypes.” Jennifer began struggling to control her trembling hands long enough to take off the safety on Daniel’s gun.
Desperate to stall her, Allie pretended to trip, and dumped the water on Jennifer’s lap.
“Whoops!” she cried as Jennifer gasped.
Gripping the gun in fist, Jennifer swung at Allie’s face, who ducked out of the way. The mishit caused Jennifer to fall to the side on the table, but she caught herself.
She straightened her perch on the table, glaring at Jake with pure venom in her eyes. “I had Mark upload two brain-storage drives for me, Jake. Did you think I would let myself die with only one memory device storing the contents of my brain, for God’s sake?”
“God has nothing to do with any of this,” Jake said with more hatred in his voice than Allie had ever heard. “And the pain will never stop. It’ll eat your brain from the insides.”
“No, it won’t! I didn’t go through all of this crap just to be in physical pain!”
“Are you having a coffee klatch?” Kathleen said as she returned to the room. “Give her some room.”
Allie looked over her shoulder. Kathleen was pointing a gun at her again. She tugged on Daniel’s shirt, ushering him and Jake toward the adjacent wall.
“What took you so long?” Jennifer said. “Give me the injection of Oxycodone. Jake’s of no use. His hands are shaking as bad as mine. And take this othre gun before I accidentally pull the trigger.”
Kathleen accepted the gun and released the safety. “You’re all wet. Did you pee yourself?”
Jennifer narrowed her eyes at her.
Wordlessly, Daniel stepped in front of Allie, getting between her and Kathleen.
“Shoot all four of them, including Melissa, and be done with it,” Jennifer One said. “Then we need to go get the memory microchip I hid. We need to upload it into me a second time, to undo this good-damned screw-up of Jake’s.”
When Kathleen continued to stare at Jennifer absently, Jennifer rose, unsteadily and grabbed the edge of the operating table. “Get. Me. Oxycodone.”
Kathleen noisily sucked in air through her teeth and gave Jennifer an exaggerated wince. “I poured every pain killer we have down the garbage disposal. But I am sorry that things came down to this.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Suzanne snarled. “You’ve just got a slightly different mind than I do! I’d never sabotage myself like this!”
“It must be a bit of Kathleen’s nastiness taking hold,” she said with a shrug. “Her personality blends well with ours, and to our advantage. We discussed this, as you’ll recall...what to do in a life-jeopardizing situation involving just one of us. I’m supposed to prudently avoid situations that put both of us at risk at once. I’m your safeguard. Don’t worry. I’ll carry on.”
Allie saw Jennifer look at the television screen. Her eyes widened, but she quickly shifted her focus back to Kathleen. “All you have to do is give me an opiate! Or even a goddamned analgesic! You’re not under duress, or putting yourself at risk. You’ll start becoming Kathleen, and she was a dimwit, just like her sister.”
A fire alarm went off, right over their heads. Water started pouring from sprinklers in the ceiling. “Crap! That’s my firebug sister at work!” Kathleen grumbled.
Allie saw that Jake was white. He was starting to reel. Daniel grabbed him.
“I’ll put you all out of misery,” Kathleen said. “Out of my misery, if not your own.”
Kathleen aimed at Jake, but Daniel lunged at the examination table. Daniel managed to fling it into Kathleen, knocking her legs out from under her. Jennifer raced over to Kathleen and kicked her in the stomach. Kathleen tried to turn to reach one of the two guns, but only succeeded at kicking it farther away.
Both Daniel and Allie instinctively grabbed Jake and tried to pull him toward the door. Jake was dead weight. “Grab him!” Allie said.
Mellie suddenly burst into the room. “Come on. Get Jake out of here.”
The Jennifers were grappling on the floor, both clawing at each other’s faces, the gun momentarily out of their reach on the floor.
Smoke was filling the room. Already Allie could barely see. Mellie was leading them toward an exit. Behind them, the Jennifers were screaming at each other.
With the three of them lifting, they dragged Jake through the door. They barreled their way through the operating room, then the hallway where they’d entered. Jake was starting to feel too heavy for Allie, but she couldn’t stop now. They had reached the door of the exit.
“I’ve got the door,” Mellie said. “Go! Go!”
Daniel was supporting most of Jake’s weight. Even so, Allie started to falter, unable to support Jake’s weight. Just then, Mellie rushed up and helped to lift him. They reached the sidewalk.
The weight on Allie’s shoulder eased. Jake had regained consciousness and was able to stand.
Allie struggled to regain her breath. “You set the building on fire?” Allie asked Mellie, stunned.
“I bought lighter fluid at a convenience store. The box I brought in wasn’t actually empty. The alarm system auto-opened the locks in the room I was in.”
Mellie lagged back, as the three of them kept going, trying to get across the street.
“Mellie?” Allie said, looking back over her shoulder. Still leaning on Daniel, Jake and Daniel stopped.
“Just get Jake to a hospital,” Mellie said. She pivoted and started running back toward the building.
“Wait! Come with us!” Allie cried. “What are you doing? Rescuing the Jennifers?”
Mellie looked back as she opened the door. “Bye, Allie.”
Startled, Allie raced after her. “Wait!” Allie shouted. Mellie darted back inside and shut the door behind her.
Allie grabbed the doorknob, but it was too late. “She threw the deadbolt!”
“Get her,” Jake said, shoving Daniel. Jake promptly dropped to all fours, in obvious agony. “I’ll be fine.”
Daniel hesitated for just a moment, then sprinted down the alley, turning at the corner to head toward the back door.
Jake groaned and lowered himself to one side. Allie knelt by his side. “I’m calling nine-one-one,” she said, grabbing the cheap cellphone that Daniel had given her.
“I think I’m getting better,” Jake managed. “It’s supposed to fade all on its own.”
“Are you sure?”
“Not for sure. Nothing’s certain with brain chemistry.”
Allie dialed 911 and told them about the fire. “A fire truck is already on its way, miss,” the dispatcher said.
Allie hung up on the dispatcher. Daniel rounded the corner toward
them. He was panting hard.
“You couldn’t get in?” Allie asked, although she knew the answer.
He shook his head. “What does she think she’s going to accomplish!?” Daniel said, his voice anguished.
“Mellie’s wants to blockade them both inside,” Allie said, crying. “And she’s willing to die trying.”
Jake’s eyes rolled back in his head, and he collapsed on the ground. “Jake!” Allie cried.
“He passed out again.”
“Maybe he’s having a seizure. He told me he was getting better.” She knelt over him and felt his carotid artery. “His pulse seems strong. He’s still breathing.”
He opened his eyes.
“Look!” Daniel cried, pointing at the roof. “You can see flames.”
Allie couldn’t see from her perspective and was too scared for Jake to care. “Jake? Are you okay?”
“I think so,” he managed.
“We’ve got to get farther away from the building.” Daniel was already lifting Jake to his feet. Once again, Allie draped Jake’s arm over one shoulder and held onto his chest.
Daniel and Allie half carried, half dragged Jake across the street. By now, the sirens were growing ever louder. The sidewalk was starting to fill with lookie-loos. A forty-something man took over for Allie, and he and Daniel easily got Jake to a tree where he could get some shade.
Allie thanked the man and asked him if he could get Jake a bottle of water. “There’s water in the car,” Daniel said, tossing her his keys. “We need to check and make sure the other businesses on the block are empty,” he said to the man.
Allie ran to the car and grabbed a water bottle. As she was returning, the fire truck arrived. She saw Daniel gesturing at the truck and pointing at the building. Just then, an explosion resounded. It sounded like the fire was going to engulf the building.
Two firemen began to chop down the front door while two others were hooking up a hose to the fire hydrant.
“Drink this,” Ellie said, handing Jake the bottle of water.
Daniel trotted up to Allie and Jake. His brow was furrowed. “McBitch was driving a silver Mercedes the other day,” he said to her. “Remember?”
“Yes. We saw her drive one when she left the Albany High parking lot.”
“I noticed it parked in front of the building when I tried to get in a minute ago. Now it’s gone.”
Chapter 29
Within the course of the next half an hour or so, the flames seemed to have been extinguished from Allie’s vantage point. The roof was still being showered with water from the truck’s hoses. She glanced a few yards away and saw that Jake was still being interviewed by a police officer, who was nodding his head to whatever Jake was saying.
Just as she approached Daniel to join him in his vigil, she saw a fireman emerge from Jennifer’s clinic. She and Daniel both strode toward the fireman.
“Did you get everyone out safely?” Allie asked. His weary grimace gave her the answer she dreaded hearing. He shook his head. “There were two victims.”
Just then, two more pairs of firemen emerged behind him, carrying gurneys with blankets over the top.
“I need to see the bodies,” Allie said. “My friend went back into the building...and our two captors were already inside.”
The fireman shook his head. “You don’t want to see. It’s too late to identify them visually.”
She’d already given a statement to the police that detailed the day’s major events. She had described Jake’s brain-storage inventions merely in terms of its original intention—to combat Alzheimer’s and improve patients’ memory. She had decided that she could be forthright about what happened, while vague about the motives that drove “Suzanne Anderson-Jones” to kidnap her and Melissa.
At the same time, Allie tried her best to affirm the understandable motives that drove Melissa to set the fire: needing to escape herself, and to help the three of them escape, and to protect them from a nemesis who’d kidnapped her and threatened to kill all four of them.
“Could you tell what the victims were wearing?” Daniel asked the firemen.
“One of them was wearing a fire-retardant coat—a doctor’s jacket.”
Allie closed her eyes and sighed in relief. Jennifer One was dead. Yet Allie’s eyes prickled with tears at the realization that Jennifer’s death meant that Suzanne Anderson was now dead.
She suspected that, in alternative universe in which Jennifer McGavin had never lived, she and Suzanne would have liked each other immensely.
“The second victim’s clothing was too badly burned for identification. We’ll have to wait for dental records, and so forth.”
“Thank you,” Allie said quietly. The fireman nodded and walked away.
She looked at Daniel. “Jennifer One is dead,” she said, “so it had to have been Kathleen who took Jennifer’s car. She must have escaped.”
“There’s a chance it was Mellie,” Daniel said.
“No, there isn’t,” she said sadly. “Mellie died in the fire.” She covered her eyes. “I feel so terrible. I was so mean to her at first.”
“No, you weren’t,” Daniel said. “You were in a no-win situation. Nobody can judge how a person should react when they meet themselves in the flesh. It wasn’t your fault.” Daniel held her tenderly and let her cry for a moment.
As she pulled away, she saw Jake watching them with a pained expression on his face. Wordlessly, both she and Jake walked up to him.
“I’m so sorry about Melissa,” she told him. “I feel terrible about being so cold to her.”
“At least Jennifer as Suzanne is gone, along with her memory chip,” Daniel added. “Even though Jennifer as Kathleen Cooper survived.”
Jake was being oddly silent.
A fireman approached. “The paramedics are here,” he told them. “It was an inferno in there, with lots of smoke.” He gestured with his chin at the ambulance. “The three of you should go to the hospital and get checked out.”
“I’m fine,” Allie and Daniel said in unison.
“So am I,” Jake muttered.
“You don’t look so good,” the fireman countered.
“He’s got a bad headache,” Daniel explained.
“It’s probably smoke inhalation,” he replied and looked again at Jake. “The EMTs will hook you up to an oxygen mask.”
“No. I’m not going anywhere in an ambulance.”
“Suit yourself,” the fireman said. He trudged back toward the building.
“You should go the hospital just in case,” Allie said. “I’ll come with you, Jake.” She put her hand on top of his.
Jake jerked away and stared at her blankly. “My name is Eric. Quit calling me ‘Jake.’ My girlfriend, Melissa, just died. I’m not in the mood for chatting with a couple of strangers.”
Allie gaped at him. “Jake. Don’t do this to me.” His gaze remained stony. “You know who I am. It’s me. Allie.”
“Have we met before? I must have hit my head. I don’t remember you at all.”
“Cut the crap,” Daniel said. “I gave Allie the letter earlier today. We’re not buying any of this.”
“Dude,” Jake said, shoving Daniel in the chest, “whoever you are, get out of my face.”
“Daniel is right,” Allie said firmly. “You’re trying to sacrifice yourself again. There’s no need.”
“Stop yapping at me. Get it through your head. I got no idea who the hell you are. Either of you.”
“You told me the procedure didn’t work,” Allie cried. “That you still remembered everything. Including Eric’s memories. Yet the MEG scan was identical to the one you had eight months ago. When you were Jake.”
Allie grabbed handfuls of his shirt fabric. “You remember me, Jake. You only remember being Eric as Jake. That’s the only way your MEG scan could have been the same. You’re lying.”
“I don’t know who you think I am. My name is Eric Sterling.”
“No, it isn’t,” Allie insisted
despite her despair. “It’s Jake Greyland.”
“I was trying to save my girlfriend of five years,” Jake continued. “She’s a firebug. Her name is Melissa Cooper.”
“There’s no sense in arguing with him, Allie,” Daniel said. “His mind is made up. We’re just making things worse. We need to head to the police station to wrap up our interviews and let the investigators file their reports.”
“We can’t just leave him here! He’s in pain!”
Jake had taken several steps back. She looked at him through bleary, tearful eyes. “Bye, Ellie,” he said.
“How’d you know my real name?”
“I heard Melissa call you that.”
“No, she didn’t. She called me Allie. I love you, Jake. I know you love me, too.”
He shook his head, but wouldn’t look her in the eyes. “I love Melissa Cooper. I’m sorry.”
“You’re lying, Jake! You’re just trying to make my decisions for me,” Allie said. She had to clear her throat. She couldn’t speak very clearly through her tears. “You can’t. You don’t get to be in charge of my feelings.”
Jake studied her eyes, his own expression inconsolably sad. She saw tears in his eyes, and it broke her heart. He shifted his vision to Daniel. “Take good care of her,” Jake said. He turned and ran down the sidewalk.
Through bleary vision, she watched him, knowing there was nothing she could do or say that would change his mind. Maybe he’s right to give up on us. Maybe we’re just too badly broken.
“Come on, Allie,” Daniel said gently. “Let’s go.”
She searched his eyes. She wanted to tell him that she wasn’t Allie, that she was Elony Montgomery, a plain-looking girl with a sharp mind, who had fallen in love with a brilliant man by the name of Jake Greyland.
Daniel held out his hand. Reluctantly, she grabbed it and allowed him to lead her away from the destruction.
A Note from Ellie about the Author
If you enjoyed my adventures, maybe Leslie will write another book. In the meantime, you might enjoy other books by the author. You can check out her website or Facebook page for other books.
Mind Echoes (Book 2 in the Body Shifters Trilogy) Page 22
