by Malinda Lo
Reese and Julian parted on the corner of Church and Twenty-Fourth. “Leave your phone on,” he called to her as he started across Church Street. “I’ll call you later.”
She headed south on Twenty-Fourth, pulling out her cell to call David. But he didn’t answer, and his phone kept ringing until she realized the voice mail wasn’t going to pick up either. She ended the call, wondering if she had the wrong number.
She was preoccupied with thinking about how they could get inside Allied Research Associates when she arrived at home and unlocked the door. Inside, the house was dim and quiet. She hung her keys on the hall tree and walked past the archway to the living room on her way to the kitchen.
She halted.
There were three men in the living room, all in black suits. Agent Forrestal stood and gave her a tight smile. “Hello, Miss Holloway.”
Her mouth fell open.
Agent Forrestal took a step forward, his polished shoes clicking smartly across the wooden floorboards. “I see that we’ve startled you.”
“What are you doing here?” Reese glanced at her keys, still swinging on their hook. The front door had been locked, hadn’t it? “How did you get in?”
He folded his hands behind his back. “Your lock wasn’t secure.”
“But you can’t just come in. It’s against the law.” Forrestal gave her a slightly dismissive smile, and her face burned. Obviously that made no difference to them. “What are you doing here?” she demanded again.
“We’re here to take you into protective custody,” Agent Forrestal answered. “We have to leave immediately.”
“Leave? For where? I’m not going anywhere with you.” She backed away until her foot struck the wall behind her.
“It would be easier for you—for everyone, really—if you don’t resist.”
She glanced behind Forrestal at the other two men in black. One had sandy hair and freckles; the other had skin the color of mahogany. Neither looked like they’d have any problem subduing her if she resisted.
“Agent Kowalski, take Miss Holloway upstairs to pack,” Forrestal said. The sandy-haired man stepped forward.
“I’m not going anywhere,” Reese said again, her muscles tensing.
Kowalski hesitated, looking at Forrestal. “Would you rather we pack for you?” Forrestal asked.
“Pack to go where?” Reese asked angrily.
“That’s classified,” Forrestal answered. “Kowalski—”
“My mom will call the police,” Reese interrupted. “You can’t kidnap me.”
Forrestal’s jaw tightened. “Do you really think the police will be able to do anything?”
Reese felt the lump of her phone in her back pocket as it pressed against the wall. Before she could second-guess herself she lunged for the front door.
It happened so fast that she could barely register what was going on. Someone grabbed her arm, twisting it back painfully. She yelped, turning her head to see Kowalski holding her still with one big hand. His hair was buzzed so short that she could see his white scalp through it. He had something that looked like a pen in his other hand, but then Reese saw the slender tip of it and realized it was a hypodermic needle.
“I’m sorry,” Kowalski said, and his sharp blue eyes held a trace of sympathy as he plunged the needle into her arm.
She felt the sharp stab, and then a thick coldness rushed through her body. Kowalski’s face spun in her vision; the smooth lines of his clean-shaven cheeks blurred. Behind him Agent Forrestal loomed like a phantom, and then she saw nothing.
CHAPTER 30
Reese woke to the sensation of the world falling away beneath her. She blinked her eyes open and saw a blackened window. Her stomach heaved and she tried to bend over but discovered she was strapped to a seat. Two seat belts ran diagonally across her body and over her shoulders, pinning her in place. Her ears popped, and she realized that she must be on an airplane.
She turned her head to the other side and saw David sitting across the aisle, hands gripping his armrests. “David,” she said, her voice sounding muffled.
Behind her a man said, “She’s awake.”
She heard someone getting up, and a moment later Special Agent Forrestal was leaning over her. “You—you drugged me,” she said. She felt as if a fog were blanketing her mind; everything she saw seemed slightly out of focus.
He was studying her face. “The sedative affected you more strongly than we expected.” He reached overhead and took down a waxed paper sack, handing it to her. “We’ll be landing soon, so take this in case you need it.”
It was an airsickness bag. “Where are we landing?”
“I think you’ll find it familiar,” he said, and then returned to his seat.
“Reese?” David said. His face was pale, and he looked like he might need an airsickness bag too.
“Are you okay?” she asked. His face swam in her vision, and she blinked, trying unsuccessfully to clear her head.
“I’m feeling… a little weird.”
“Yeah, me too.” She leaned back, trying to breathe steadily as the plane descended. Why did her body feel so disconnected? It was as if her nerves were all gummed up, making everything she did unbearably slow.
“I think it’s the drugs,” David said.
Through the haze of the sedative she stared at the blackened window. There were a couple of scratches in the paint, and through them bright light glowed. It was still daytime. She wondered if her mom had figured out that she was gone yet. The plane’s descent seemed to accelerate, and she heard machines grinding as the wheels dropped. She gripped the edge of her seat and closed her eyes, sweat breaking out on her forehead. She had never been airsick before, but this landing might precipitate her first time. When the wheels finally touched down, she heaved a sigh of relief and immediately began to fumble with the buckles to release herself from the seat. But her fingers were clumsy, and she couldn’t do it.
“Hold on, Miss Holloway,” Agent Forrestal said as the plane taxied down the runway. “We’re almost there.”
But it seemed like forever before the plane came to a stop and Agent Forrestal pressed a button overhead that released her seat belts. They retracted automatically as another agent opened the door. Bright daylight flooded into the small cabin of the plane, making Reese squint. She got up, clinging to the top of her seat for balance. Her head spun. Beside her David stood as well, and she heard him say, “Whoa,” as he banged into the wall.
Agent Forrestal came back. He put a hand on her arm, and at first she tried to pull away, but his fingers only clamped down more firmly. “Let me help you out,” he said, and she winced at the grip on her elbow.
“Fine, jeez,” she mumbled. He prodded her down the steps of the plane and into a brilliant, hot afternoon.
It looked exactly like the airstrip in Nevada. It smelled exactly like the airstrip in Nevada: gasoline on concrete; and dry, dusty air. She jerked away from Agent Forrestal and turned around in a daze, staring at the purplish mountains in the distance, the wide expanse of brown desert, the beige and tan buildings that nearly blended into the ground. She thought she should be terrified—she recognized this dimly in her brain—but instead she felt as if someone had pressed a mute button on her emotions. She saw David climbing down from the plane, eyes narrowed against the glare, and she asked, “Are we here? Is this the same place?”
“Reese,” David said. She could barely hear him, but she recognized the shape of her name on his lips. His body seemed to waver in the sunlight as if he were a mirage. She blinked again, but it only made her dizzy. She bent over, hands on her knees, as she sucked in a breath of hot air and tried to will herself out of the sedative haze. From the corner of her eye she saw Agent Forrestal talking to Agent Kowalski. Another man in black was carrying duffel bags out of the plane. She heard a car engine approaching and straightened to see a Humvee pulling up to the edge of the airstrip.
Agent Forrestal was beside her. “You’ll need to get into the vehicle,�
� he said.
She flinched away from him, bumping into David. He put his arm around her waist, and that seemed to help a little. Agent Forrestal’s face came into focus. His forehead wrinkled, forming a straight line over his nose.
“… into the vehicle,” Forrestal was saying.
“I’m going,” she heard David say. His voice was so close to her that she could feel the vibration through the side of her body.
They walked together, legs scrambling at first so that she nearly tripped over his feet. His arm tightened around her. A charge ran from where his fingers pressed into her hip and all the way through her body. She slipped her arm around him to balance herself, her hand sliding across the muscles of his back. He was warm, and she could smell the slight tang of metal from the sweat on his skin. Beyond her physical sense of him, there was something deeper—something that she remembered to be afraid of. But fear too was muffled by the sedative, and it didn’t seem nearly as important as the fact that when she leaned on David, she felt more like herself.
When they reached the Humvee, Agent Forrestal opened the back door and she had to separate herself from David to climb in. She was startled by how wrong that seemed. The haze returned, making her clumsy again, and she slid awkwardly across the giant seat. David followed her in, and then Agent Forrestal closed the door and climbed into the front passenger seat. The Humvee began to move.
They were driven past a row of low buildings that Reese thought might be the Plato facilities, but they never drove close enough for her to make out the signs. They headed down a pale, dusty road that led in a ruler-straight line toward what looked like an airplane hangar. As they approached Reese saw a cluster of shorter buildings in front of the hangar, and this was where the Humvee stopped.
A black man in a white button-down shirt emerged from the nearest building, and Agent Forrestal went to meet him while Reese and David got out of the vehicle. “Miss Holloway, Mr. Li, this is Special Agent Malcolm Todd,” Forrestal said. “He’ll be taking over from here.”
“Good afternoon,” Agent Todd said. There was something familiar about his face, but she couldn’t put her finger on what it was. “Please follow me.” He opened the door to the building, gesturing for Reese and David to enter.
She glanced at David, who shrugged slightly. She knew what he meant. Behind them Agent Forrestal and the driver of the Humvee—another man in black—were watching them. All around, the desert rippled with heat. There was nowhere else for them to go.
CHAPTER 31
The interior was as nondescript as any ordinary office building, but there appeared to be only one thing in it: an elevator that had no call buttons. A camera was mounted above the sliding doors, and Reese gazed up at its blinking red light, the hairs on her neck rising.
The elevator arrived with a soft, nonthreatening ding. Agent Todd gestured for them to enter. As she stepped into the elevator, the fear she thought she should be feeling began to pulse inside her, and she knew the sedative was wearing off.
“Where are we going?” she asked.
“Medical evaluations are first,” Agent Todd said. His dark eyes regarded her straightforwardly, as if he had nothing to hide. But she was certain—absolutely certain at that moment—that he did. He broke their gaze before she did, and she stepped back as if she had been pushed, banging into the wall of the elevator.
David touched her elbow. “Careful,” he said.
Her senses zoomed in on the pressure of his fingertips. “I’m fine.” She stepped away, and she didn’t look at Agent Todd so closely again.
When the elevator doors slid open they were in a hallway identical to the one above, but this time the air was noticeably cooler. Agent Todd took them down the long, white corridor, and they passed a number of locked doors, each one fitted with a lock like the ones Reese remembered from the Plato facility. Finally Agent Todd led them through a set of double doors into a larger space that looked like a hospital ward. There was a central area with a large, U-shaped counter, and around the perimeter were glass walls. On the right side were offices; on the left were exam rooms. At the far end the glass walls were frosted, and Reese saw a sign for a restroom. Several men in lab coats were working in the area, and as Agent Todd led Reese and David through the space, most looked up to watch them pass.
Todd stopped in front of one exam room, and a panel in the glass wall slid open. “Go inside, Miss Holloway. You’ll wait here.”
“What about David?”
“Mr. Li will be examined next door. Go on in.”
David gave her a slight nod, and reluctantly she stepped into the room. The glass panel whooshed shut immediately. “Hey!” she cried, but she couldn’t figure out how to get the door to slide open. There were no handles. Agent Todd led David away, and Reese saw all the lab coats in the central area staring at her. Their scrutiny was like dozens of fingers touching her at once. She shuddered and turned her back on them.
The room was a perfect white cube, with the polished glass wall behind her. There was a hospital bed; a counter with a sink in it; and a bank of computers, monitors, and other machines along the back wall. One chair, molded out of hard, clear plastic, was pulled up beside the counter. She sat in the chair, looking resolutely at her hands. Out of the corner of her eye she could see the men moving behind the glass wall. She felt utterly exposed, like a lab rat in a cage.
She didn’t have long to wait. It was barely a few minutes later when the glass wall slid open again and two lab coats came in. One was a woman—the first Reese had seen here—who carried a tablet computer; the other was a thin white man who held a fancy-looking camera. The woman said, “Clarice Holloway? I’m Dr. Singh, and I’ll be examining you today. This is Dr. Anderson, who will be assisting me. The first thing we need you to do is take off your clothes.”
Reese had stood when they entered, and now she crossed her arms. “What?” The last traces of the sedative must have left her system, because she felt as if all her senses were on high alert. She could practically smell the scent of curiosity radiating off these people.
“Take off your clothes,” Dr. Singh said again.
“No. I don’t know you.”
Dr. Singh pursed her lips. Her dark brown hair was pulled back in a severe knot. “We can’t do the exam with you fully clothed.”
“Too bad,” Reese snapped. “I’m not taking my clothes off.”
“It would be a lot easier if you cooperate,” Dr. Singh said.
“The last time someone said that to me they drugged and kidnapped me.”
Dr. Singh frowned. “That’s regrettable. I’m afraid they had no other option. I’ll ask you one more time: Can you please remove your clothes for the exam?”
“No.”
Dr. Singh’s light brown cheeks darkened. She said over her shoulder, “Sergeant Harris.”
A tall, burly man in fatigues came into the room and approached Reese. She backed away until she was in the corner of the room, trapped between the bed and the bank of machines. “Don’t touch me,” she warned, but it didn’t stop him. He put his hands on her and forced her toward the hospital bed. “Let go of me!” she screamed, trying to struggle. But he was so strong, she was like a minnow wriggling on a giant hook, and he pulled her easily across the floor. There was something unusually alarming about his touch too. His hands were unnaturally still as she twisted in his grip, and she had the impression of a dense blankness inside him that chilled her to the bone. It was that blankness even more than the threat of being forcibly stripped that made her cry out, “Stop it, I’ll do it! I’ll get undressed, just let me go.”
Sergeant Harris abruptly released her, and her legs nearly buckled in relief.
“Thank you,” Dr. Singh said. “You’re dismissed, Sergeant.” As he left, Dr. Singh removed a remote control from her jacket pocket and pressed a button that caused the glass wall to become an opaque, frosted white. Then she went to the counter and pulled a hospital gown out of the top drawer. She laid it on the bed. “P
ut that on.”
Reese crossed her arms over her chest, glancing at Dr. Anderson. “Does he have to be in here?”
“I’m sorry, but we have no other technicians available right now. Your arrival was a bit unexpected.” Dr. Singh looked at the male doctor. “Why don’t you turn around while she gets undressed?”
Dr. Anderson nodded. He looked a bit apologetic, but Reese didn’t know why it made a difference if he turned around. Wasn’t he going to photograph her after she took off her clothes? Her face burned as she peeled off her jeans and T-shirt. She left on her underwear, and Dr. Singh didn’t seem to object. The hospital gown had the same pattern as the one she had worn at the Plato facility.
“Climb onto the bed,” Dr. Singh said.
Reese lay down, her heart still racing from the encounter with Sergeant Harris. “Why are you examining me?”
“You received medical treatment recently at a classified military facility. This is a follow-up exam.” Dr. Singh removed a headset from the counter and placed it over her hair, angling the microphone so that it was in front of her mouth. The headset was plugged into a digital recorder that she slid into her pocket.
“If you wanted me to come in for a checkup, you could’ve called me instead of kidnapping me.”
Dr. Singh didn’t answer, but her lips drew into a thin line. She pulled on a pair of plastic gloves and plugged her stethoscope into her ears. “Let’s begin,” she said, turning on the digital recorder. Dr. Anderson came over with his camera.
As Dr. Singh slid the cold stethoscope under the hospital gown against her skin, Reese felt cool, processed air blowing against her bare arms and legs from a vent in the ceiling. In one corner of the room she saw a blinking red light. It was attached to a video camera. Dr. Singh began to speak into her microphone, reporting her observations about Reese’s body. After she had recorded Reese’s pulse, she moved to Reese’s head, where she pulled back her hair.
“There are no visible scars on her scalp line,” Dr. Singh said. Dr. Anderson leaned over and photographed her, the camera clicking several times in quick succession. Reese closed her eyes so that she wouldn’t have to see either of them.
