by B. J Daniels
He shook his head and motioned for her to follow quietly.
She hadn’t realized that she’d been holding her breath until they reached the office to find it empty. The light apparently had been left on by accident. Either that or the person was in the building and would be returning soon.
* * *
JACK MOVED QUICKLY to his father’s desk. He was about to open one of the drawers when he spotted the plaque sitting on the desk with his father’s name printed on it. There was also a photo of him and his father from a fishing trip they’d taken years ago.
He glanced at Cassidy. She’d come part way into the room and now stood looking around nervously. He quickly turned the plaque and photo facedown and began opening the drawers.
The top drawer had nothing interesting in it. Nor did several of the other drawers. His father fortunately was very organized, so it made the search easier. When he got to the bottom drawer, he found it locked—just as he remembered.
“How did you know there wasn’t anyone here?” Cassidy asked. She’d moved over to a wall of photographs. He felt his pulse jump in concern until he realized they were all snapshots of his father with dignitaries, politicians and even one with the latest president.
“No cars outside. Nor did I see anyone moving around up here.” He opened the middle drawer, hoping to find the key. No such luck. “I could have been wrong, though.” He shrugged when she turned to look at him.
“Find anything?”
“The bottom drawer is locked. I’m going to have to break the lock.”
She raised a brow at that.
He had hoped to get in and out quickly and not leave any evidence that he’d been here. Reconciled, he quickly stepped to the door and closed it. His father had hired a security firm that checked the building several times during the night. They came by at midnight and 3:00 a.m. Jack glanced at his watch. It was only a little after eleven.
Back at the desk, he took his father’s letter opener and began to pry at the lock. Cassidy, he noticed, had moved to another wall of photos. For a moment, Jack worried that his father might have a snapshot of him. But apparently he didn’t have to worry.
The lock finally gave and he pulled open the drawer, surprised to find it held only one item—a large metal box. He took it out, a little taken aback by how light it was. If his father kept a little spare money in here, it wasn’t much. Something inside it gave a metallic rattle. Like the drawer, the box was locked.
“Did you hear that?” Cassidy said, suddenly next to him.
He hadn’t heard anything but the noise he’d been making himself. He listened for a moment. This time it definitely wasn’t the old plumbing. He knew the sound of the old freight elevator only too well. It banged and clanked and whined. Which meant someone had pressed the button on the ground floor and was now on his way up.
Jack tried to gauge if they had time to make a run for it. Unfortunately, the stairwell was at the opposite end of the hall. He couldn’t take the chance.
He quickly closed the drawer with the broken lock. With luck, whoever it was wouldn’t notice—assuming this office was where they were headed. It hit him that if his father had been lying about where he was, he would be the one coming up here right now.
The elevator came to a noisy stop, the doors groaning open. An instant later, Jack heard the sound of heavy footfalls headed in their direction.
* * *
SARAH OPENED HER eyes and stretched, surprised to find herself lying on the couch. Her body ached as if she’d been curled up in the fetal position for a very long time.
“How do you feel?” Dr. Venable’s voice was soft and soothing. He had put the pendulum away. She had the feeling that time had passed, but she couldn’t remember it passing.
She nodded, not wanting to speak, just wanting to stretch and breathe. Her headache was gone and she was thankful for that. Remembering it, though, she recalled that he had promised to restore her memory. She sat up abruptly.
“Easy,” he said. “You might feel a little dizzy.”
She searched her memory. She couldn’t even remember how she’d gotten from a chair at the table to this couch.
“You are going to give yourself a headache if you try to remember everything at once. Take it slow. Start here.” He handed her the photographs again.
“I already told you. I don’t know those people.” At his insistence, she took the snapshots again. She knew the headache was only an instant away if she kept trying so hard to remember even the simplest things. She closed her eyes for a moment.
When she opened them, she glanced down at the top photo and felt shock ricochet through her.
It was a candid shot of a handsome young man. His name came to her in an instant. Joe Landon. She felt her heart do a bump against her ribs. Her mouth went dry and she couldn’t speak. The memories swept over her. Tangled sheets, bodies damp with sweat, skin dimpling as a breeze stirred the curtains and washed over their nakedness.
The memories brought goose bumps that raced over her as she recalled the feel of her long-lost lover’s warm flesh against hers.
“Joe,” she said after a moment and her eyes filled with tears.
“Yes,” Dr. Venable said and smiled.
“Is he...?”
“Alive? Yes. He is most anxious to see you,” he added, sounding pleased that whatever he’d done to her, she now remembered.
She looked up at him, shock rocking the already cracked foundation of her life. Earlier she would have sworn that she didn’t know these people, had never seen them before.
Now she looked at the other photographs. With a start, she realized she recognized all of the people in the shots. The most terrifying was when she recognized herself. She was the woman with the dyed red hair, she was— Dropping the photos in her lap, she hugged herself against the horrible truth. “I’m Red. I was a member of The Prophecy. I was...”
“The leader. You still can be.”
She shook her head and stumbled to her feet. It all came back to her. She’d been part of the anarchist group back in college that had led to the death of innocent people. What was even more shocking was that she had believed in what they’d hoped to accomplish. She’d come up with the plan. How was that possible?
“You were the leader. You and Joe. It’s true.”
She took a few steps away from him, hugging herself and shaking her head. Her skin felt clammy and cold. Her head whirled. She felt weak and sick to her stomach. But she remembered the names they’d used instead of their real names. Dr. Venable had been Doc. She’d been Red. Joe... Joe had been Achilles, the strongest and most fearless warrior in the Greek war against the Trojans.
A more current memory slammed into her thoughts. “John Carter and Warren Dodge tried to kill my daughter Kat!”
Doc looked sorrowful, but nodded. “Your daughter had to be stopped. She was getting too close. As it was, Joe had to scramble to protect you when they were caught. Sarah, you are still Red. You are still their leader. The Prophecy is depending on you.”
“No.” She turned to face him. “No.”
“You owe the others. They have sacrificed for you. They got Virginia Handley to confess to being Red to save you.”
“No.” She took a step back. She wanted to run but there was nowhere to go. She was trapped because now she knew that all of it was true. The nightmares, the memories of a powerful automatic weapon bucking in her hands, the taste of vodka on her lips, that feeling of being so powerful that she believed she could conquer the world. “Why would Virginia do that?”
“You remember Virginia. She lived on your floor at college. She would have done anything back then to be in The Prophecy. She’s the one who took all of these photographs. But she was wrong for us. When we found her again after all these years, she jumped at the chance to protect you.
Also, she is dying of cancer. By the time her trial date comes up, she’ll be gone.”
Sarah stumbled to a chair and sat down hard. With her head in her hands, she said, “John is dead and Warren...”
“He will gladly go to prison. Just as Wally McGill and Mason Green have served their time like a badge of honor. We swore an oath all those years ago to give our lives to the cause. No one has broken that oath.” There was a slight hesitation in his voice. “Except you.”
“Even after all these years?” she cried, thinking these people must be crazy fanatics and that she was once one of them.
“Of course, after all these years. The Prophecy has been working in other parts of the world, waiting to do something big here in the States. That’s why I’m here. It’s time to finish what we started all those years ago.”
While she had no idea what that was, she knew enough to fear it. She raised her head to look at him. He hadn’t lied. He knew her. She could see it in his eyes. It was almost as if he could read her mind, know what she was going to do even before she did. He knew about Russell and that she’d been ready to confide in him. He also knew how she felt about Buck.
Sarah saw what he’d done. He’d given her back these memories—only to stop her from telling anyone. She was a murderer—just like the rest of them. Maybe more so because she’d been the leader. Unless she went along with whatever the anarchist group still had planned...
“What are they planning?” she demanded, her voice hoarse from unshed tears.
“You will know when it’s time.”
* * *
CASSIDY FELT PANIC fill her as she listened to the footfalls growing nearer to the room where they were trapped. Whoever it was, he was headed right for this office.
“In here,” Jack whispered as he opened the door to the small closet and pulled her inside with him. The closet was tiny and lined with shelves filled with office supplies and papers.
There was little room to stand for the two of them and the metal container that he’d found in the bottom drawer. They pressed their bodies together in the cramped space as tightly as they could and yet he’d only been able to partially close the closet door.
She heard the outer door bang open and heavy footfalls as someone entered the room. Through the sliver of light from the partially open closet door, she caught a glimpse of a large man. She didn’t get a look at his face as he headed straight for the desk. A moment later she heard him let out an oath and begin opening and slamming the drawers.
When he suddenly stopped, Cassidy thought for sure that the next place he would look would be the closet. She held her breath. Jack seemed to be doing the same thing. Her heart jackhammered as the man started to turn toward their hiding place.
A phone rang. The man hesitated before pulling out his cell on the second ring. “Urdahl,” he said into it. He stood, apparently listening to whoever was on the other end of the line for a few moments before he said, “Well, I hate to be the bearer of even more bad news, boss, but the package you asked me to pick up is gone.”
The man held the phone away from his ear until apparently the caller quit yelling. Cassidy couldn’t make out the words, but she heard enough to surmise that his boss was very angry. “Like I said, this wasn’t my fault. I have men at his house in case he comes back. He hasn’t been back since this morning and didn’t show for some appointment he had this evening. Just tell me how you want me to handle this.” He listened for a moment. “Right. I’ll let you know when I find her. But what do you want me to do about your son?”
* * *
“THERE’S ONE MORE thing I need to know,” Sarah said as she realized Dr. Venable planned to leave without answering any more of her questions.
“In good time,” Dr. Venable said.
“No,” she said, digging in her heels as she stepped past him to block the door. She crossed her arms and held her ground. “I want to know why all those years ago I drove into the Yellowstone River in the middle of winter in an attempt to kill myself. I need to know why I left six beautiful daughters. Why I left a husband I loved. I want to know now or I’m going to call the sheriff.”
Dr. Venable studied her openly for a moment. “You want to spend the rest of your life in prison? Once everyone knows you’re Red—”
“Now or I make that call.”
He sighed. “All right.” His face hardened along with his eyes. “You weren’t supposed to fall in love with Buckmaster Hamilton. You were supposed to blend in, like the sleeper spies the Russians sent over to assimilate into our communities. Having children was fine, though we questioned why you would have so many. Six?” He shook his head. “You were supposed to...blend in until it was time. Instead, you bought into that life. You wanted to forget the past. You wanted to forget about our plans. When Joe contacted you—”
“So that was it. I wanted out of The Prophecy,” she said, feeling as if things were finally making sense. “And I wanted out of whatever...plans you say I came up with.”
Doc nodded. “You’d lost that fire you’d had, that desire to change the world. All you cared about was your precious family. You bought into the bourgeoisie. You had everything you wanted and you were ready to sell the rest of us out.”
She frowned. “But you couldn’t let that happen.”
“Not me. Joe. After two of our members had spent years in prison for a cause that you said you believed in, he was determined you weren’t getting out. Not after the rest of us had done our part.”
Still, why would she leave her precious family and the people she loved? “You threatened me.” With a curse, she met his gaze. “No, you threatened to use my family to force me...” Her hands balled into fists. Had she held one of those automatic weapons she used to fire when she believed in the philosophy of The Prophecy, she would have turned it on him.
That bonfire he talked about, that need to “do” something, burned brighter than ever inside her. Only what she wanted to do was destroy The Prophecy. Which meant destroying not only herself, but also her family. Destroying Buck.
She looked at Dr. Venable and felt a bubble of bile rise as she realized she was still between the same rock and a hard place that she’d been more than twenty-three years before. The members of her old anarchist group would never let her quit.
Taking a moment to get control, she considered the precarious position she was in. She still didn’t have all the facts because she didn’t have all of her memory yet. She didn’t know what they had planned. But once she did...
She nodded as if coming to the decision he wanted her to. “So failing my attempt to...escape by killing myself, I called you.”
“I was the only one who could help you and you knew it.”
“I trusted you apparently. And your answer to my problem was to steal all memories of that life.”
“You begged me to. I erased it and then took you away from here as well. We were happy in Brazil. Oh, don’t look so horrified. We weren’t lovers. We were...associates. We talked a lot about changing things—just like we did during your college years.”
“I don’t understand how I came to be part of The Prophecy.” In high school, she’d been the perfect daughter, perfect student, perfect citizen. She’d gotten a scholarship to university. What had happened when she reached there? Had it been Dr. Venable who’d changed her? Or had it been—
“Joe brought you in.”
She nodded, closing her eyes for a moment. Of course she’d been a vulnerable, wide-eyed small-town girl at a big university and Joe was handsome, charming, sexy, intense, like no other man she’d ever met. He’d been her first lover. Memories flooded her. She shuddered at the thought that a part of her could still be vulnerable to him.
“It wasn’t an accident that you met and married Buckmaster Hamilton,” Dr. Venable said. “You chose him as part of a plan.”
&nb
sp; She frowned in surprise. “But how could I have possibly known he would run for president, let alone that he might stand a chance of winning all those years ago?” The words were barely out when she realized her mistake. “Buck was just a way to get to Senator JD Hamilton. As his daughter-in-law, I would have influence over him. There was talk that he might run for president. I was to make sure that he did, right?”
Doc nodded. “It would have worked if he hadn’t fallen in love with the young girl who lived on the ranch next door.”
“We can’t help who we love,” she said, thinking of Buck.
“You and Joe seemed the perfect match.”
She shook her head. “Whatever Joe and I had, it wasn’t love. He indoctrinated me.”
Doc bristled. “I wouldn’t let him hear you say that. And you can say you were brainwashed, but you seemed more than willing to take up the cause. After all, you’re the one who came up with the plan to go after Senator JD Hamilton.”
“I was young and stupid.”
“Your plan almost worked.”
“What plan was that? The same one you have for Buck?” Sarah saw that he had no intention of telling her. “I need to know what you’re going to do to him.”
He quirked a brow. “What makes you think we’re going to do something to him? It will be up to you what happens. But first you have to convince him that you’re dying to live in the White House, dying being the key word.”
“You would kill me—”
“Why would we kill you?” Dr. Venable said as he handed her back her phone. “You and Joe are going to lead us. Just like you used to. When the time comes, you’ll know exactly what has to be done and you’ll do it.”
“Is that what you told JD Hamilton when he was ready to quit the race for president?” she asked.
“Unfortunately, JD disappointed us and had to be dealt with. You have too much to lose to let that happen.”
* * *
AS HE HEARD what Ed said into the phone, Jack no longer had to wonder if his father knew that he’d helped Cassidy escape. Nor did he have to speculate on whether his father would know that he was the one who’d broken into his desk and taken the metal box he now held under his arm in the dark of the closet.
