Triggered Response

by Patricia Rosemoor

  “If caught,” Ulrich corrected. “I didn’t actually do the dirty work. I left that to Wes Vanderhoven. He understood the importance of the weapon we were creating. He volunteered to execute the test and got caught in the accident himself. When I saw how the chemicals worked on his and Darnell’s brains, I experimented on myself.”

  “I remember hearing you tell Edmonston that you were sending us to Beech Grove Clinic where Dr. Morton was going to videotape us for you.”

  “Necessary proof of the success of the experiment.”

  “But you never meant for us to live.”

  Ulrich shrugged and a cruel smile twisted his mouth. “Alas, the chemicals killed you, after all.”

  “Like the monkeys?” Bray asked.

  “We had to prevent the creatures from revealing our secrets. A necessary loss.”

  “Was Riddell a necessary loss, too?”

  “It was only a matter of time before the little sycophant realized I had taken control of the situation. Besides, he’d served his purpose. He was no longer of any use to me.”

  Then Ulrich went silent and focused in on Bray, and suddenly the atmosphere changed fast. The lab immediately grew bright and hot. Claire looked around. The whole room was shifting, changing, again turning into something out of Bray’s nightmare world.

  Fearing Bray would succumb, that he wouldn’t be able to fight the PTSD this time, she said, “Don’t believe it, Bray. It’s a lie. Ulrich is feeding you a lie. You’re at Cranesbrook with me.” She grabbed his hand. “Don’t believe his lies. He’ll try to kill you with them!”

  Bray seemed to find strength in her grip as he said, “I know I’m at Cranesbrook with you, Claire.”

  Now some distance from them, Ulrich made a sound of disgust. He pulled two test tubes out of his lab coat pocket. “You won’t be able to talk—neither of you—once you get a little whiff of this.”

  Ulrich launched the vials at them, but they stopped, suspended in midair as Gage entered the lab, followed closely by Rand.

  “Oops,” Claire said to Ulrich. “One of your experiments just went you one better.”

  “No!” Ulrich cried, reaching out and snatching the vials in his grip.

  The two glass containers clinked together and the chemicals mixed, pouring over Ulrich’s face. The scientist sucked some of the liquid in with a shriek. Gagging, he threw his hands to his head, and for a moment, Claire feared his head would explode. But in the end, his stomach merely emptied as he slid to the ground.

  “Both of you, back away fast,” Gage said, his expression intent on the fallen scientist. “The lunatic may have killed himself, but I don’t want anyone else following.”

  Claire realized that Gage was using his power to keep the fumes from traveling toward them. Bray wrapped an arm around her back and pushed her to the doorway. Rand was already in the hall on his cell phone.

  “Detective Rand McClellan. We have a bio-chem hazard at Cranesbrook Associates and need a HAZMAT team immediately.”

  Gage followed and closed the door behind them. “Let’s go get some fresh air.”

  THE BASTARD hadn’t died. Claire could hardly believe Dr. Nelson Ulrich was still alive, though in a way, his punishment was even worse. He’d lost his mind. Literally. He would be a vegetable for however long his body continued on. Without a directive indicating otherwise, that could be a long, long time.

  Maybe in this case, the punishment fit the crime.

  Thankfully, Dr. Kelso was okay. The only aftereffects of her knocking him out with the fire extinguisher were a sore shoulder and a mild headache. When he’d seen her so unexpectedly the night before, he’d actually thought she’d been involved in the underhanded dealings at Cranesbrook. As it was, he expected her to turn in her resignation, but he wasn’t going to press charges.

  “We need to decide what we’re going to do,” Bray told the others. “We all have a stake in this, so everyone needs to agree.”

  A night of debriefing during which they’d carefully avoided straight talk about Bray’s and Gage’s powers had followed a mutual decision to outright lie, a decision they’d made before the authorities had shown up. They’d created a story woven out of half-truths. Claire had thought it amazingly convincing, and she hadn’t even contributed to the lie. She’d merely repeated it.

  Halfway through the morning, they’d been released and had all convened at Bray’s home for a late breakfast and now for a serious conversation.

  “We can’t let anyone know about the powers,” Lily said. “Ever. Or Gage and Bray will be a freak show. They’ll cage them like animals and say it’s for their own protection.”

  “If we don’t ever use them, no one will know,” Bray said.

  “Right,” Gage agreed. “Telekinesis—what’s that?”

  “They’re going to learn about what happened from the research notes,” Echo predicted. “It’s only a matter of time.”

  Claire didn’t say anything. Echo was correct, of course. Somehow, though, she didn’t feel as if she had a right to express her opinion, so she stayed on the fringe of the group and kept her mouth shut. She’d forced herself into the situation, while they’d all simply been victims. She would do anything they required of her.

  Her eyes stung with unshed tears as she thought again about Mac, who’d been taken away in a body bag. There would be an autopsy, but at least, when the medical examiner was through with him, she could see that he had a proper burial.

  “Thinking about using Ulrich’s research in reality is the scariest thing I can think of,” Gage said. “What would happen if the wrong people got their hands on it?”

  “What if the ‘right’ people took it to the ultimate level?” Rand said. “No one should have these kinds of powers. No offense intended,” he said directly to Bray.

  “None taken.”

  “We don’t have any control about what happens.” Echo shook her head. “I mean, we can’t say anything, but once informed scientists get to those research notes… There’s just nothing we can do to stop this train from leaving the station.”

  Knowing what she had to do, Claire finally spoke up. “Actually, there is.”

  Everyone turned to her. She connected with Bray who’d been unlike himself since they’d left the lab. He’d been distant and seeming in some dark place. He hadn’t spoken to her directly once until now.

  “Tell us,” he said.

  “It depends on whether or not you’re comfortable living another lie for the rest of your lives.” She was speaking to them all, but looking straight into his eyes. “If everyone doesn’t agree to this and keep the pact, it’ll come down on Bray and Gage and on me like a ton of bricks.”

  “None of us is going to talk about what really happened,” Lily said. “But how does that negate the research notes?”

  “What if every Project Cypress file was destroyed?”

  “You can do that?” Gage asked. “Infect them with a virus that can’t be doctored?”

  “I can find a way.”

  “Why not just delete them?” Lily asked.

  “Because they’d still be like ghosts on the hard drives at Cranesbrook,” Rand told her, no doubt following Claire’s way of thinking. “Someone could bring them back unless they’re overwritten. What about other notes? What if Ulrich kept a journal?”

  “We just have to hope he didn’t, or if he did, we have to hope that the authorities put whatever he says to the ravings of a madman,” Claire said. “It’s more likely he kept the information where he thought no one could get their hands on it, though.”

  “Then I say destroy the damn files and we all stand behind you,” Rand said.

  A chorus of voices lent their agreement, including Bray’s, so Claire fetched her laptop and settled herself in his office to work. At some point, she realized Bray came in and sat behind her and watched her work.

  He didn’t say a word.

  Neither did she.

  Once online, she tapped into a network of Black-hats—com
puter hackers who could and would do anything for pay or even for their own amusement.

  Quickly letting them in on her “theoretical” problem, she was offered a series of solutions, the best of which was layering—first replacing the data, then having a virus corrupt the fake data and having a virus bomb ready to corrupt it yet again when someone tried to get in. A triple play.

  It took her several hours, but when she was done, she was as confident as she could be that no one was going to get anything of value from the Project Cypress files.

  Spinning in her chair, she said, “Done.”

  “You do this often?”

  “Never before.”

  “Can I believe that?”

  Claire sighed. “It’s up to you to decide what you believe and what you don’t, Bray. Maybe I’ve told too many lies for you to trust me, but I never told a lie that was meant to hurt anyone.”

  “Then why do it at all? You’re really, really good at it.”

  “I learned from the best. A mother who hid her alcoholism and expected her kids to do the same for her when the social worker came around. Considering the depths of my so-called family, I lied just to protect myself. I did get really good at creating a fantasy life to fool my friends and my teachers, and maybe I didn’t know when to stop. I don’t expect you to understand. But I hope you believe that I didn’t mean to break anyone’s heart,” she said, meaning his, of course.

  “I understand that you needed to find out what happened to Ellroy.”

  “He was my best friend, Bray. He was the only one I could count on for most of my life. We might not have been related by blood, but he was my family, just like the people in the other room are yours.” She couldn’t bring herself to count on them accepting her. Probably she would never see them again once Project Cypress became a thing of the past. “I couldn’t just let Mac go like he didn’t mean anything. Like the way my mom and my siblings did to me.”

  “I get it,” Bray said, his expression opening. “I’m really sorry he didn’t make it and that you had to find him the way you did. I don’t expect you to ever let go of him. Or the memory of him. But maybe it’s time you let go of the lies.”

  Claire couldn’t help the tears that filled her eyes as she thought about the future. Mac was gone and now she was left with no one. The future stretched out in front of her empty and grim.

  Then Bray took her in his arms and held her tight against him. “Cry if you want.”

  “I don’t want to cry anymore. I want to be happy.” Suddenly, Claire wanted to tell him the truth she’d been holding back since he’d insulted her the night before. But would he believe her? “I want to love you, Bray.”

  “Then love me.”

  “I already do, with my whole heart. The question is…will you let me? And do you believe me?”

  “Maybe the chemicals addled my brain, because I do believe you. I lied to you when I said you were nothing to me. I was trying to protect you.”

  “I know.”

  “That and the other things that happened last night gave me a lot to think about,” he admitted. “How your lies got to Ulrich and saved me…the fact that we all lied to the authorities to keep this abomination from spreading. I guess making the decision of what to tell other people isn’t always black or white.”

  Her chest was tight with hope when she looked up at him. “Can we start over?”

  “Why don’t we pick up where we left off?” he murmured just before he kissed her.

  Epilogue

  Two months after the accident

  “Ho-ho-ho.” Dressed in a Santa suit, Bray picked up a gaily wrapped present from under the fresh spruce whose top touched the ceiling and whose boughs were loaded with lights and ornaments Echo had collected over the years. “Have you been a good little girl?” He set the present on the floor in front of Zoe and grinned behind his white beard as his niece squealed and began ripping off the paper.

  “Hey, Santa, what do you have for me tonight?” Claire asked softly.

  “Whatever your heart desires.”

  Her smile lit up her face and Bray thought that dressed in her green outfit, she made the most beautiful elf in the world.

  They were all gathered in Echo’s home for eggnog, cookies and Christmas carols, all part of an old-fashioned Christmas Eve—Rand, of course, who couldn’t keep his eyes off Echo; Gage and Lily, who couldn’t keep their hands off each other; and Claire, who couldn’t stop smiling at him.

  Bray still couldn’t believe he was lucky enough to have her love him as much as he did her.

  “I have one other gift here,” he said in his Santa voice. From his bag, he pulled out a smallish present, the one he’d been told to leave for last. “Echo, have you been a good girl this year?”

  “Have I?” she asked Rand.

  “Sometimes you’ve been good, but other times you’ve been really, really sensational.”

  They gave each other such a loopy grin that Bray had to insert himself to deliver the present. “For you.”

  Echo took it and ripped off the paper with every bit of abandon as had her daughter. She stared at the small jeweler’s box in her hand for a moment before opening it. Her mouth rounded into an O.

  “Merry Christmas, Echo,” Rand said. “Can I help you put that on?”

  “That” being a substantial diamond ring, Bray noted.

  “Uh-huh,” she said, handing him the box and holding out both hands, fingers spread. “You pick the finger.”

  Slipping it on her left ring finger, he said, “Marry me and make me the happiest man in the world.”

  Echo squealed, threw her arms around his neck and covered his face with kisses. “Yes…yes…yes!”

  “Time to break out the bubbly,” Claire said. She popped open a bottle.

  “As soon as my condo sells,” Rand told Bray, “I want to pay you back what you put into this house.”

  “Not necessary. I did it for my sister.”

  “But we’re going to be family, and I’m going to take care of Echo and Zoe now.”

  Bray shook Rand’s hand. “And you’d better do a damn fine job of it or you’ll answer to me.”

  Claire passed around a tray with filled champagne glasses. Lifting her own glass, she said, “To love that lasts a lifetime.”

  They all drank. All but Lily.

  Gage frowned down on his wife. “Something wrong with your champagne?”

  Lily sighed. “I have a present for you that Santa simply can’t deliver. We’re going to have a baby.”

  “Looks like I should’ve hung around home sooner.”

  Gage threw his arms around his wife, and Bray thought he’d never seen his ex-partner appear so happy.

  So that Gage could pursue developing his inventions, he’d sold his half of Five Star Security to Claire. Bray’s new partner said she’d finally found something to compete with her love of computers. Bray wasn’t sure if she meant the business or him, but he decided to take it very personally.

  The security business was thriving after the publicity they’d gotten in taking down Nelson Ulrich, a mad scientist who’d run amuck as far as anyone knew. No one had ever found out the real secrets of Project Cypress. Ulrich had been kept alive by machines for several weeks before he’d passed on, his secrets buried with him, as far as they were all concerned.

  No matter how happy everyone else in the room might be, Bray thought he was the happiest. He’d been seeing a therapist and had been making great strides in dealing with the PTSD. Most of all, he had Claire by his side, both in work and in life. Nothing like a reformed woman to keep him challenged during the day and warm at night.

  When she said, “Hey, Santa, about that special Christmas present—that would be you,” he knew she was being truthful.

  “You already have me for as long as you want me.”

  She indicated the mistletoe hanging over their heads. He didn’t miss a beat. He kissed her, beard and all.

  “Let’s get out of here,” Claire whispe
red, pulling him toward the door. “Santa needs to give me that present in private.”

  “Merry Christmas to all,” Bray boomed to the others. “And to all a good night.”

  ISBN: 978-1-4592-2251-9

  TRIGGERED RESPONSE

  Copyright © 2006 by Patricia Pinianski

  All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.

  All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.

  This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

  ® and TM are trademarks of the publisher. Trademarks indicated with ® are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the Canadian Trade Marks Office and in other countries.

  [http://www.chaser.com.au] www.eHarlequin.com

  *The McKenna Legacy

  **Club Undercover

  Table of Contents

  Dedication

  About the Author

  Books by Patricia Rosemoor

  Cast of Characters

  Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen