More Than a Man

by Rebecca York

  “I’ve been thinking of various dangers,” he said. “We already know you survived without oxygen for hours in that drowned submarine. And I’ve found out that you were shot in the chest on your ranch last week with no lasting damage. But that leaves many interesting possibilities. What about fire? Can you survive that?”

  Noah clenched his fists.

  “We’ll set up a little experiment—with Olivia—to find out.”

  “No!” Noah screamed, but he might as well have kept his mouth shut.

  Bainbridge picked up a phone on the table beside him and spoke, but there must have been some kind of damping device on the instrument, because Noah couldn’t hear what he was saying. And because he cupped his hand over his mouth, his lips were hidden.

  Still, it took only a few moments for him to find out what order had been given. On the screen, the door to Olivia’s cell opened, and two men came in. One of them held a gun on her while the other cuffed her hands in front of her. Then they led her through the door and out of the picture.

  “Leave her alone,” Noah shouted again. His gaze flicked to Hemmings, who was sitting rigidly in his chair, his face a stark mask. Did that mean he hadn’t given his approval for this experiment, whatever it was? Could Noah use that?

  He turned to Hemmings, but the doctor avoided his eyes.

  “Come on,” one of the men behind Noah said. He wanted to sit down on the floor and make them carry him, but he was afraid that he would only be putting Olivia in serious danger, so he went along.

  Behind him, Bainbridge got slowly to his feet. Noah hoped the man was in pain. At least that thought gave him some small satisfaction.

  Hemmings also stood, and they walked back to the elevator. Noah tried to focus on the layout of the underground building. There couldn’t be only one entrance, could there?

  That would be too dangerous.

  But his heart was pounding so hard that it was difficult to focus on the details of his surroundings. They exited into a kind of reception area, with several doors and a large viewing window. Through it, he saw Olivia standing on a platform at the far end of the room. She was tied to a wooden post, and straw and wood were piled around her on the platform.

  Straw and other flammable materials covered the floor between her and the door.

  “The fire will start at this end of the room and move toward your lovely wife,” Bainbridge was saying. “You’ll have to run through it to get to her. Once you get there, you’ll find a fire hose you can use to put out the flames.”

  “You bastard.”

  “I’m sure you’ll disregard your own safety and do your best to save her,” Bainbridge said. “Because you love her so much. Or were you telling her the truth?”

  He pressed a switch beside the door, and a line of flames sprang up across the middle of the room. They leaped high, shooting ten feet into the air. And they were at least three feet thick.

  Beyond them, Olivia gasped. When the fire started moving toward her, she began to struggle, trying to free herself from the post. But she was tied securely in place.

  Noah threw the door open and bolted into the room. The fire continued to advance, getting wider as it crept toward Olivia.

  “Noah!”

  “I’ll save you,” he shouted, staring at the ten-foot wall of flames that now separated them. His only option was to run straight for the fire.

  His clothing caught immediately, and the flames seared his skin, sending agonizing signals from his nerve endings to his brain, but he kept running, his goal was to reach the fire hose.

  Olivia’s screams echoed in his ears as he made his desperate dash. He could feel his flesh burning deeply now. The pain was incredible, but he gritted his teeth as he reached the fire hose, turned the cock and felt a rush of relief as water gushed from the nozzle.

  He was enveloped by mind-numbing pain as he sprayed Olivia, sprayed the straw and wood around her, then turned to spray the flames licking at his feet.

  Olivia’s screams were still echoing in his ears as he fell over, into the fire.

  WHEN his eyes blinked open again, he was lying in a bed with Hemmings and Olivia standing over him. He saw tears trickling down her face.

  “You killed him,” she whispered. “How could you stand there and let it happen?”

  “No, he’s already healing,” the researcher said.

  Noah dragged in a rattling breath, and both of their gazes shot to him.

  “I’m sorry,” he whispered, his eyes fixed on Olivia.

  “Noah. Oh, Lord, Noah.”

  He raised his hand toward her, but it fell back on the bed. He still didn’t have much strength.

  “It’s the secret I couldn’t bring myself to tell you,” he whispered. “I don’t die. No matter what happens to me, I just come back to life. That’s the damn secret.”

  She stared at him, and he knew she was having trouble taking that in. Who wouldn’t?

  Well, Bainbridge for starters. And Hemmings.

  He turned toward the researcher. “What do I have to do to make sure you don’t put her through anything like that again?”

  The researcher’s expression turned eager. “Cooperate with me.”

  Noah felt his stomach clench, but he kept his voice even as he asked, “How?”

  “I want to do some tests on you. And I want to know everything you’ve learned about longevity.”

  “It won’t help Bainbridge. As far as I can tell, I’m unique, so you’ll be wasting your time. I can’t even reproduce. I’ve never had any children.”

  “Maybe. But I’d like to find that out for myself. How long will it take you to recover?”

  “Several days,” he said, lying. He’d be functioning sooner than that, but he was hoping he could buy himself some time while he figured out how to get the hell out of here.

  Hemmings nodded.

  He gave the researcher a direct look. “If you want any kind of honest cooperation from me, do not lock Olivia in a cell again. I want her with me in comfortable quarters.”

  “Maybe that can be arranged,” Hemmings said.

  “It better be.” He stopped talking and closed his eyes, partly because he needed to rest and partly because he couldn’t cope with the wounded look on Olivia’s face. He had lied to her, and she’d found out in the worst possible way. But maybe that was part of the fun of the experiment for Bainbridge.

  After a few minutes rest, he said, “Where’s our host?”

  “Resting.”

  “I hope he’s in pain.”

  “He is.”

  “Glad to hear it. Do you know what burns over ninety percent of your body feel like?”

  Hemmings winced.

  “Unendurable pain is often the consequence of not dying,” Noah said.

  “Maybe that can be controlled.”

  “I doubt it.” He kept his focus on the researcher. “I want to be alone with my wife.”

  “All right.”

  To Noah’s vast relief, Hemmings turned and walked out of the room. Noah took a deep breath before shifting his gaze to Olivia.

  “I asked to be alone with you, but that’s a relative term. We’d better assume that anything we say and do is being monitored.”

  “Yes,” she whispered.

  “Like I said, I’m sorry I got you into this. Bainbridge apparently thinks I can save his life.” He paused for a moment and thought about what he wanted to say, then stared at her with an intensity he hoped conveyed his urgency. “But Hemmings is a brilliant researcher. And I’ve had years of experience in the field of longevity. Maybe working together we can figure it out. So for now, I’ll cooperate.”

  Olivia nodded.

  Although afraid of her answer, he asked her, “How do you feel about me?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Yeah, it’s hard to wrap your head around my abnormality. It was hard for me.”

  “That woman you loved a long time ago. Did she know?”

  “Yes. I told her.”
r />   “You trusted her enough,” she said, her voice sad.

  “I trusted you enough, but I was terrified that I’d lose you. I was just trying to figure out how to work my way up to a confession.”

  “And she accepted it?”

  “Yes.”

  Olivia nodded, and he knew she still hadn’t made any decisions about what this meant for her. He wanted to swear to her that he’d rescue her from this outpost of hell on earth where anything could happen. But because he didn’t want Bainbridge to know that was his goal, he couldn’t say anything.

  “Do you know why you’ve lived so long?” she asked.

  “No. My family died of the plague in a little village in Britain. Monks found me as a boy wandering around, starving. They took me in, and I grew to adulthood and lived with them for a while—until some of the brothers started wondering why I didn’t get sick. They tried to kill me. I survived. I’ve had a lot of lives. I’ll tell you anything you want to know about them.”

  It was a relief to come clean with her, although he still didn’t know what the future held for them. If—when—he got them out of here, he’d give her a divorce if that’s what she wanted. And enough money so she’d never have to worry again. Then he would go back to his lonely existence.

  They were still huddled together when Hemmings came back. “You’re being moved to a guest suite,” he said. “Near the lab. Then you and I can start talking about your research.”

  “We’ve been corresponding about it for years.”

  “Yes, but I want all the facts you didn’t share,” he said and there was something in his tone that made Noah wonder about his motivation. Could he be having second thoughts about Bainbridge’s methods? Could he actually be stalling for time?

  Too bad they couldn’t be clear on that point.

  “Can you walk?” Hemmings asked.

  “I’d like a wheelchair,” Noah answered, because he was still pretending that he was in worse shape than he really was.

  “I’ll show you the suite. Then I’d like to do a physical exam.”

  The suite was comfortable, although not as opulent as the sitting room where Noah had spoken to Bainbridge and Hemmings.

  “I’ll be back as soon as I can,” he told Olivia. The look she gave him when Hemmings wheeled him away for the physical made his stomach knot.

  WHEN Noah and Dr. Hemmings had left, Olivia breathed out a sigh. Her insides were churning. She wanted to be with Noah—her husband—and at the same time, she wanted to be alone.

  Seeing him fighting to save her life, even as flames enveloped him, had been the most wrenching experience of her life. She’d known he must be in agony. When she’d thought he was dead, she’d felt like her own life had ended.

  Men had carried his charred hulk into another room and laid him on a table. When they’d let her go in, she’d been sobbing, thinking she was saying goodbye to him. Then his chest had moved as he’d sucked in a breath of air, and Hemmings had told her that Noah had remarkable recuperative powers.

  His secret.

  She understood why he’d kept it to himself, although she was pretty sure he’d been working up to telling her.

  She knew exactly what it meant for the two of them. She would grow old and die and he wouldn’t.

  Or maybe not. Not if Bainbridge had his way and finished her off. Maybe the only way to prevent that was to help Noah figure out how to get out of here, because she was pretty sure that’s what he was doing.

  No doubt she was being watched, she thought, as she walked around the suite. The drapes were drawn, and behind them she found only a wall. There were two doors to the rooms, both of which were locked. There were also two bathrooms. One was fairly small, with a pedestal sink, a toilet and a shower stall. The other was larger, with a long vanity. When she looked under it, she could see an access panel to the plumbing.

  Would they have cameras in here, too?

  Stepping inside the bathroom, she closed the door and began looking through the drawers of the vanity, where she found some beauty supplies and a manicure kit.

  Could she open the panel with it? And would armed guards come rushing in if she did?

  She stopped and squeezed her eyes closed, fighting tears as the irony of the situation reached out and grabbed her. Yesterday she’d dared to embrace the happiness Noah had brought her. Today her dream of a normal life with him was shattered. She might end up going back to some kind of life on her own, where she’d try once again to dig herself out of debt and stay out of her brother’s clutches.

  She shuddered, hating to imagine that alternative.

  She still loved Noah, and she had to give him her support—at least until this was over.

  Deciding she had nothing to lose, she firmed her lips, crawled under the sink and used the nail file to work on the screws that held the panel closed. When she got it open, she found a space large enough to squeeze behind the pipes. In fact, she could see a kind of tunnel leading away from the bathroom.

  Was she looking at an escape route? Even if she was, exploring it on her own was a bad idea. After loosely screwing the panel back again, she used the facilities, then went back to the bedroom to wait for Noah.

  THE medical complex turned out to be on the same floor of Bainbridge’s little kingdom. Noah looked around, hoping for something he could use to help him escape.

  Hemmings wasn’t in a very chatty mood as he did the examination. Other than issuing orders, he didn’t speak until he was finished.

  “You’re in excellent shape,” he said then. “I don’t think you need that wheelchair.”

  “You could be right.”

  “Put your clothes back on and meet me in the lab,” he said. “It’s just down the hall. And don’t try to get out of here. The cameras will pick it up and the guards will go after your wife.”

  Noah gritted his teeth, knowing Hemmings was right.

  When he was dressed, he found Hemmings in a state-of-the-art bio lab. He saw an autoclave, a fluorescent-activated cell sorting machine, tissue culture hoods, an electron microscope, biological safety cabinets, an incubator for growing and protecting tissue samples and a lot more specialized equipment. It was clear that Bainbridge had spared no expense in outfitting the facility.

  Hemmings was sitting at a computer station at the end of the room.

  “So was this lab here last week?” Noah asked.

  The doctor looked up. “Partly. I had carte blanche to get what I needed.”

  “How did they get it in here?”

  “You don’t need to know that,” Hemmings snapped. “Let’s get back to you. How old are you?”

  Noah shrugged. “I was born in the early fourteenth century.”

  Hemmings reacted with an exclamation of surprise. “I guess you’ve seen a lot.”

  “Too much.”

  “I can’t tell you exactly when I was born. We didn’t do much record keeping in my village.”

  He talked a little more about his background, hoping to establish some kind of rapport with the researcher.

  “You should write all that down. And also your lab notes on your experiments,” he said.

  “I’d do better if I had my records.”

  “Maybe if I gave you access to this facility, you could reconstruct some of your observations,” the researcher said. “Unfortunately, the door between your quarters and the lab is locked.”

  Noah stared at Hemmings. He’d like to know what the man had in mind. Was this his way of telling him about the door? He couldn’t ask, so he said that he had reached his energy limit and needed to rest.

  To his relief, Hemmings agreed.

  An armed guard escorted him through the hallway and back to the suite, where he found Olivia pacing the carpet.

  A wealth of emotions gathered on her face when she saw him. “I was starting to worry about you.”

  “I’m fine.”

  Before they could say anything personal, the door opened and two men came in, one of them holding a
tray and the other a gun.

  “Dinner,” the one with the tray said and set it down on a table at the side of the room.

  When they were gone, Olivia declined the food. “I’m not hungry.”

  Long years of practicality made him say, “But you’d better eat because we don’t know when we get more food.”

  She answered with a little nod.

  They sat at the table, both of them quiet as they picked at the steak, baked potato and green beans that had been delivered. Yesterday he and Olivia had been so warm and close. Now they might have been strangers, and he fought the fear that this was the emotional end of their marriage.

  When Olivia finally spoke, her words confused him. “Come in the bathroom.”

  “What?”

  “Maybe we can take a shower together,” she said.

  He stared at her, astonished that she wanted to get that close to him. Or maybe she knew that might be the only place where they could have some privacy.

  He didn’t object as she led him into the bathroom, closed the door and turned on the water in the shower.

  Instead of taking off her clothes, she got down on her hands and knees and pointed to a panel under the sink. Then she opened a drawer and got out a nail file.

  “That’s very creative of you,” he murmured, his admiration for her surging.

  She met his gaze. “I want to…I mean, do you think they’re watching us in here. I’d be embarrassed if they were.”

  “Let’s assume we’ve got some privacy in here. At least that there’s no camera.”

  He didn’t know where they stood, but he couldn’t stop himself from reaching for her and pulling her into his arms, holding tight.

  “I love you,” he said again.

  She nodded against his shoulder, but she didn’t wrap her arms around him and she didn’t return the words.

  He held her for a few moments longer because he needed the contact to steady himself. Finally he stepped away and started working on the screws, which she had obviously already loosened. When he removed the panel, he could see a tunnel.

  He pointed inside, then pointed to himself.

  When she gestured to herself, too, he shook his head.

  She made a face but just handed him the small flashlight that was in another drawer. Nice of Bainbridge to provide it, but he supposed it was a necessity in a home that was completely inside a mountain.