by Pamela Fryer
He could never act on his physical needs for Lily. There could never be another woman for him. It was wrong to even have these feelings.
He glanced out the window as silence settled over them again. Slowly, neighbors began arriving home. The bad weather proved a good cover. Thanks to the thick, black clouds it was already dark. People hurried inside and no one came out to mow the lawns in the sideways rain. At seven-thirty the light by Meiling’s front door and the walkway lights clicked on at the same time.
“How are you doing? Do you want to take a break?”
Lily shook her head. “I’m fine.”
A silver Mercedes pulled into the drive. She clutched Miles’ arm. “She’s home.”
“Someone’s home,” he corrected her.
The garage door opened to an empty garage with a washer and dryer by the door leading into the house, but little else. A stack of cardboard boxes was piled against the left wall. No set of family bicycles, no toys, no tools.
“She parked in the middle. Let’s go.” Before he could stop her, Lily had the door open and one foot on the sidewalk.
He jumped out from the driver’s side and followed her across the street. Too late he realized he should have been instructing her on the proper etiquette of questioning instead of memorizing the pretty nuances of her face. Lily was desperate and liable to make a mess of things.
The temperature had dropped significantly in the last two hours, but he expected Lily’s speed as she headed for Meiling’s door was from excitement, not because of the rain. He grabbed her arm to slow her as they hit the path. “Let me do the talking,” he managed to say before she pushed the doorbell.
An attractive Asian woman pulled back the curtain on the narrow window beside the door. “Who is there?” she called through the glass.
Miles showed his badge. “Miles Goodwin, Seattle Police.”
He found himself under Lily’s questioning gaze, but she didn’t comment.
“Tiny fib,” he whispered.
The woman disappeared from the window and a moment later the door cracked open. “Is there a problem?”
“Ms. Wong, we’d like to ask some questions about your time at IntelliGenysis.”
She frowned. “I’ve already spoken to the Spokane police and the FBI. I can’t tell you anything more, and frankly I wish you would stop bothering me.”
The door started to close. Lily shoved it open.
Ms. Wong staggered back a step with a look of utter disbelief on her face as Lily stalked inside.
“You have no right!”
Yep, he should have been giving her some pointers. The questioning had gone to hell in under a minute. A new record for him.
“Ms. Wong, he’s with the police, I’m not. You can either answer my questions willingly, or I’ll force them out of you.”
Shit.
The terrified woman glanced from Lily to him. He stepped inside but held the door open. “Lily.”
Meiling threw a bitter scowl at her. “I will tell you the same thing I told the others. I signed a proprietary agreement. I cannot talk to you without a warrant.”
Lily’s body language revealed defeat, but clearly she wasn’t ready to give up yet. “I’m not here in an official capacity. My name is Lily Brent. Cassandra Brent was my sister.”
“Was?”
“She’s dead. She was murdered trying to get her daughter away from the facility. Annie Brent, did you know her?”
“You mean A2-6.”
Lily tossed a wide-eyed gaze at Miles.
“Yes, I knew her.”
She held up a tiny hand. Meiling’s fingers were slender and delicate, but the pinky finger was twisted and bent, as if it had been broken so badly it couldn’t be properly fixed.
“Leave her there. The child is dangerous. Take my word for it.”
Chapter Thirteen
Lily was afraid if she didn’t sit down she would fall down.
“Did Annie do that to you?”
Silence ticked out like a too-slow clock. “No.” Meiling finally said, but her severe expression didn’t change. “Don’t go to IntelliGenysis. Nothing good will come of it.”
“Why did you call her A2-6?”
“Because it’s her name.”
Miles moved up behind Lily and placed a hand at the small of her back. Not only did she feel like she was going to fall over, she must have looked it.
“Ms. Wong, a week ago a counselor from the Spokane Department of Child Protective Services told me I was the guardian of a child I didn’t even know my sister had. She turned over a frightened little girl who has never played with a puppy or watched Sesame Street. That’s all I know about her. Then she was taken from me at gunpoint by a man the size of a linebacker. I’m going to get her back if it’s the last thing I do.”
“It very well may be.”
“Please, Ms. Wong. I need your help. You’re the only one who can answer questions which may mean the difference between success and failure. I need to understand what’s going on at IntelliGenysis.”
Meiling glanced away as she chewed her lip. Lily held her breath. With a sigh, the woman turned and sat in a love seat. Hoping that was an invitation, Lily perched opposite her on the couch. Miles closed the door and sat beside her.
The woman wrung her hands together, and when she spoke her delicate voice was hardly more than a whisper. “I know the man you’re talking about. I’m surprised you’re still alive.” She took a deep, shuddering breath. “My talking to you could get me killed.”
“I won’t reveal anything you say to us,” Lily promised. “Please, Ms. Wong.”
Meiling closed her eyes over a long heartbeat. Lily gripped the thick couch cushion, silently pleading.
The woman opened her eyes. Her expression now seemed resigned. “What do you want to know?”
“Why is Annie so valuable to Colton Reilly?” Miles asked her.
“She’s his most successful subject,” Meiling answered simply. “Or she was at the time of my resignation a year ago.”
“What are they doing to her?” Lily was almost afraid of the answer, but she had to know.
“Annie is part of an experiment called Project Midnight.”
She glanced at Miles. His stony expression revealed nothing.
“My sister claimed to have psychic abilities. Does this have something to do with this project?”
“It has everything to do with it.” Meiling settled back onto the love seat as if reluctant, but also relieved a long journey was ending in her decision to talk. “One doesn’t apply to IntelliGenysis—one is recruited. Colton Reilly hired me before he restricted himself to hiring only those with paranormal abilities, or belief in the paranormal.” She grimaced. “I should rephrase that as fanatical belief. I had always believed on a scientific level the human brain possesses vast powers unknown, but I wasn’t obsessive about it. Colton hired me because of my breakthroughs with cures in inherited birth defects through the use of gene splicing.”
“Your drug RH24,” Lily supplied.
“Yes. But I wanted to work on diseases. Colton focused all his work in two divisions, advanced intelligence and psychic abilities.”
A piece of the puzzle clicked into place. “What kind of psychic abilities?”
“Telekinetics—telekinesis, telepathy, teleportation.”
Teleportation. She glanced at Miles. His gaze flicked from her back to Meiling.
“What was he doing to Annie?”
“Annie.” She gave a humorless chuckle and shook her head. “Annie was the most remarkable breakthrough in his studies. She’s more advanced than any adult I’ve seen. The last I saw her she was about to turn five, but already more powerful than children twice her age in the telekinetics division.
“But Annie is rebellious. It was a phenomenon we witnessed in some children, but again, stronger in Annie. Though she had no way of knowing because she’d never been taught as much, she believed it was wrong to do the things we asked of her.” Her
gaze fell. “It’s just more evidence of Annie’s advanced intelligence. Unlike other children, she possesses the ability to gauge her actions as right or wrong. The boy who did this to me,” Meiling held up her hand, “also knew the difference, but he chose to do wrong. Those children are dangerous. They lack the maturity to make coherent decisions about their behavior.”
“You just said she was more advanced than adults,” Miles interjected. He looked shell shocked. Lily’s heart went out to him. It was horrific to imagine someone treating a child as nothing more than a laboratory specimen.
“More advanced—yes. More mature? No. Children have fantastic imaginations, they throw temper tantrums, they’re upset by trivial things. There are chemical reasons why children behave differently than adults and these chemicals are what make children with special abilities dangerous.”
“Surely you don’t believe Annie is dangerous?” Lily pressed.
Meiling looked at her like she was dumb. “You don’t understand. He’s building an army. Why do you think the FBI investigation was dropped? The United States government is one of his most optimistic customers.”
“Then why an investigation in the first place?” Lily wondered aloud.
Meiling gave a disinterested shrug. “Propaganda. To keep an eye on their investment. Maybe just making sure Colton knew they were in charge. You tell me.”
“It sounds like you’re saying he’s creating little monsters.” Miles’ voice was low with disgust. Lily took his hand and held it in both of hers.
“The projects are more sophisticated than that, but Colton Reilly is insane. He believes his experiments will pave the way for an advanced race of people with psychic abilities. That in the future there will be two types of people—those with psychic abilities, and those without.”
“What kind of things do they make her do?” Lily asked. Her heart twisted for Annie. Six years old was too young to comprehend the atrocities of mankind.
“The studies are quite mundane. Moving blocks around on a table, solving puzzles without touching them, reading the contents on the backs of cards. It is all very typical of psychic testing, only at IntelliGenysis it isn’t fun like what you see on television. It’s the real deal. Frighteningly real.”
“Where does gene splicing come in?” Miles asked.
“To factor in psychic abilities, of course. This is why he seeks people who exhibit or have experienced psychic phenomena to work for him.”
“Like my sister.”
Meiling nodded, grave acknowledgement in her eyes. “Like your sister.” She looked back at Miles. “This was my arena. I was responsible for the studies identifying and isolating the genes making these people different.”
It was all racing around in Lily’s head much too fast. It was like the Superman syndrome. On earth, Superman was truly super, but on Krypton he was just like everyone else. What good would psychic abilities be if everyone had them?
“He’s building wax wings,” Lily spat. “He’s a fool.”
“There is a fine line between genius and insanity,” Meiling reminded her. “Imagine having a spy who could eavesdrop on a conversation in another room simply with the power of his mind? A judge who can read the mind of a killer on trial? A soldier who can control weapons from a distance—control anything from a distance?” She snorted. “I’m in no way condoning it, but his theory is like a weapon of mass destruction. It’s a horrible thing, but you can’t help but be in awe of it. Now do you see why the government wants their stake?”
That was a scary thought she didn’t want to contemplate. When she’d believed the FBI was investigating IntelliGenysis, she saw them as an ally. But now that she knew they wanted Colton Reilly to build them psychic soldiers, Lily felt alone and insignificant against a gigantic and powerful enemy.
“Annie is afraid of the dark. She said they make her sleep in the water. What does that mean? When she appeared to us, she was all wet.”
Meiling’s eyes grew wide. “She appeared to you?”
“Twice,” Lily told her. “Rather, to Miles.”
Meiling stood and paced around her couch. “I always knew she was different from the rest, but I had no idea.” It seemed she spoke more to herself than to them.
“Annie said she had nineteen brothers and sisters. Are these all children of the employees?”
She gave that sardonic laugh again, as though Lily was as naive as a child. “They are all his children. Each and every one is his offspring. He believes he is responsible for their superior genetic traits.”
“Dear God,” Miles breathed out. “He really is crazy.”
“That’s why he’s not married to any of the women and hasn’t legally adopted Annie.” Lily surmised out loud. “He couldn’t possibly get away with adopting nineteen children without raising questions of ethics.” How could her smart, vivacious sister have fallen prey to this man?
“There were twenty children in Project Midnight alone.”
Lily gaped at her, speechless.
“There are other projects,” Meiling confirmed. She returned to her seat across from them. “There were fifty-two children in all. Six died during my time at IntelliGenysis.”
“From what?” Miles demanded gruffly. Lily squeezed his hand.
“Illnesses attributed to their studies. Drug overdoses. Colton is desperate for results; he pushes them too hard. Shortly before I left, Colton ordered a scientist named Alexandrov to introduce drugs into a group of subjects performing at a slower rate than the others, hoping to bring them up to speed.”
Her sentence hung in the air, unfinished. She stared at the floor for a long moment. When she lifted her gaze, it was filled with guilt. “There was a little boy like Annie, stronger and more advanced than the others. Only four years old. His heart simply stopped.”
Miles winced.
“How horrible,” Lily breathed out.
“One of the mothers walked out with her child and took hold of the electric fence. The child died but the mother survived. Then she disappeared. No one asked where…that’s one of the reasons the FBI launched their investigation.”
“Why did you leave?” Lily asked her.
Meiling tried to appear subtle as she dabbed at the corner of her eye, but Lily could see the first moisture of new tears shining there. “I told you, I want to cure diseases, not cause them. I wanted no part of his evil.”
“Six children have died because of his greed.” Miles closed his eyes. “Jesus.”
“What does the water mean?” Lily pressed.
“The children are isolated in sensory deprivation chambers. The study is named Project Midnight because the subjects exhibit their strongest abilities in REM sleep when totally removed from external stimuli.”
A chill rolled over Lily. “That must be why Annie is afraid of the dark.”
“It is scary for her, but Annie isn’t in any danger.” Meiling pursed her lips. “It’s the people on the outside who are at risk.”
“Unless they start pumping her with drugs,” Lily shot back.
“The drugs are only used on the weaker subjects who don’t advance at the same rate as the others.”
That was little consolation. Colton was insane. What if he punished Annie for running? It wasn’t even her fault, but Lily didn’t expect him to be capable of pity.
“What kind of drugs is he using?” Miles growled the question through clenched teeth.
Lily was starting to worry about him. He’d hardly been able to tolerate Annie’s presence. She could tell by his graying pallor and trembling hand that Meiling’s stories were pushing him over the edge. These were horrendous crimes against children.
Meiling shook her head. “I don’t know exactly. At first it was just adrenaline fed through an intravenous line, but then he started using Ketamine. It’s used medically for sedation, though in some people it can induce hallucinations. That was enough to make me resign. I told you, I haven’t been there in over a year. I can’t say what he’s done recently to m
ake your sister want to escape.”
Escape. The word caused Lily to shudder. The idea her sister had been the captive of a maniacal monster made her sick to her stomach.
“Leaving wasn’t easy,” Meiling said on a soft breath. “I look over my shoulder every day.”
“No one will ever know we were here,” Lily assured her. “I promise you, we won’t reveal your name or anything you’ve told us to anyone.”
“What can you tell us about security?” Miles asked Meiling.
Was he considering going inside with her? More likely, he was building his argument to convince her not to try, but Lily was more convinced than ever she had to.
“They don’t call it a compound for nothing,” Meiling returned. “The entire facility is surrounded by electrified fence, including the living quarters.”
Lily shuddered. Annie’s spectral warning haunted her. Don’t touch the fences.
“There are sixty cottages on the property, just like a military base. His closest employees live in luxury apartments in the main building. Lower-ranking employees who don’t have access to confidential information leave and return on a daily basis.”
She hadn’t expected this. “How do they get in and out?”
“People travel freely in and out through a guard station at the main entrance. When I worked there, security was outsourced through Adeptco.”
Lily frowned. “If they can come and go, what makes them return?”
“Golden handcuffs. Fear tactics. It’s different for everyone. Those without scruples get paid to stay. Those with a conscience are scared within an inch of their sanity. You see your good friend try to resign and then he disappears, or has an accident, and you’re sure not going to risk that.”
“How did you manage to get out?” Lily asked, barely able to conceal her anger. Why was this woman allowed to leave with her life when her sister was killed like nothing more than an annoying insect?
“I’m too well known. I was nominated for the Pulitzer.” She glanced down. “Maybe it was because I got out that your sister tried too.”
