by H. L. Burke
Ellis’s jaw clenched. “If you kill Nyss, you’ll never get what you want.”
“Oh, but I have you. Interrogating a computer is difficult, but a human? No matter how determined you are to remain silent, a dose of scopolamine and you’ll spill everything. I only need to keep you alive for a little longer, and this house has many places I can hide you while the police deal with three dead bodies and a messy crime scene.” Rivera smiled. “I think I’ll take care of your little girlfriend first. Jamison, guard the door. Make sure they stay put until I return.”
“Yes, sir.” The burly man nodded.
Rivera swept out, followed by Jamison who shut the door behind him.
Aito moaned.
“O’Hara, try to figure out a way out of here.” Ellis pulled off his jacket and slid out of his chair. Sitting on the floor beside Aito, he ripped open Aito’s shirt and pushed the wadded up jacket against the wound. Aito cried out.
O’Hara rattled the door.
“Quit it!” Jamison barked from the other side.
“You’ll be okay.” Ellis frowned at Aito. “Just put pressure on it. O’Hara, we need to move.”
“I’m trying!” The detective tore around the room, banging on walls. “Ellis, we may need another plan.”
“Are there really police coming?” Aito asked through clenched teeth.
Ellis shook his head. “It was a bluff.”
Aito pointed towards a wall. “There’s a videophone behind that panel. Rivera uses a combination to access it which he assumes only he knows.” He laughed but it turned into a cough. “He was right about one thing: I do know too much about his business. The code is 4732. Call for help.”
O’Hara raced for the panel.
“Will they get here in time?” Ellis asked.
“To save us? Maybe.” O’Hara glanced at him. “To save Nyssa … I doubt it.”
Ellis’s head spun. What was Rivera going to do? There had to be a way to stop him.
Oh dear Lord, I’ve only made things worse. Please, protect Nyss for me. I’m such an idiot.
Chapter Fifteen
“Nyss, Rivera’s coming!” Hart shouted.
Nyssa gasped and backed away from the monitor.
“What’s he going to do?” she asked.
“I’m not sure. We need to get you out of here. Let me open the door.”
She snatched up her satchel and hurried into the office. Metal groaned as the magnetic locks released. The door started to slide open.
With a bang and a clank, a shot ricocheted off the metal door. Nyssa gasped and flattened herself against the wall. The door snapped shut again.
“Blast! Rivera’s got a man out there with a gun,” Hart said.
“It’s okay. I’ll go through the floor.”
Returning to the lab, Nyssa threw herself at the hole in the floor. She wrenched up another board. Another complicated nest of wires lay beneath. She pushed at them, trying to make a space big enough to slip through. Sparks snapped at her.
“He’s in the workshop.” Hart’s display changed to that camera feed.
One of Rivera’s henchmen wheeled out a barrel with a metal rod attached. They fitted the rod into the hole in the door between the workshop and the office. Nyssa’s stomach clenched.
“I’ll have to be quick.” She shut the door between the lab and the office, hoping it would buy her some time, flipped her goggles to field detection, and started working through the wires.
She clipped restrictors around one bundle, sliced into them, then moved on to another. Soon there was a small gap where she could see the plaster from the ceiling below them. She chipped at it with the crowbar.
“Nyss, look!” Hart said.
A greenish vapor, like a bank of fog, was already seeping under the door. She bit her lip then returned to her hacking. To her frustration, a layer of wooden paneling lay beneath the plaster.
Her eyes smarted, and a scent like rotten eggs burned her nose and throat. She yanked her shirt over the lower half of her face, trying not to breathe too deeply.
The green gas pooled around her, until she could no longer see into her excavation to work.
“The gas is coming in too quickly. We need another plan,” Hart said.
She glanced at the monitor. Rivera himself held the metal rod that fed the gas into the room. Nyssa’s vision wavered.
The gas is low to the ground …heavier than air. If I can get higher, it might buy me some time.
Nyssa scrambled onto the table. The air was clearer here. She managed a few steadying breaths before reaching for the exposed beams of the ceiling. Even with the chair on top of the table, she couldn’t quite reach, nor would there be much to hold onto once she did get there.
Her eyelids felt heavy, and tears ran down her cheeks. Oh God, I know I shouldn’t fear death, but I don’t want to die yet. There’s so much I wanted to do … with Ellis, mostly, but … please … I’m so dizzy.
Nyssa’s legs gave out beneath her. She leaned against the wall. The gas now tickled the edge of the table. Heavy fumes grabbed her by the throat.
If only I hadn’t gone to that stupid meeting in the hangar. Oh Ellis, I wish you could forgive me for that. We could’ve been so happy together.
“Nyss! Don’t fall asleep. You have to fight this,” Hart pleaded.
“I’m sorry, Hart. This isn’t your fault.” She coughed. Reaching into her pocket, she found the handheld and flipped it open. At least I can say good-bye.
The screen crackled to life. Ellis’s beloved eyes stared at her, wide and frightened.
“Nyss, are you all right?”
In spite of her situation, Nyssa smiled. He’s so handsome. I never told him enough, but at least I told him. “I just … I’m sorry, Ellis. I’m getting so … sleepy.” She was vaguely aware that her words ran together … or perhaps her hearing wasn’t working quite right. It felt as if someone had stuffed cotton through her ears into her brain. “I just wanted to hear your voice, one more time.”
“Hold on. For me, please hold on.” Ellis’s voice cracked. “We’re trying to get help. I’m so close. Please, Nyss, you can’t leave me.”
Her vision became as foggy as the gas nipping at her heels. The agony in Ellis’s voice stirred something in her soul, a sharp pain that fought against the swiftly growing stupor.
“I love you so much,” she whispered as the handheld slipped from her grasp.
“Nyss!” Ellis and Hart’s voices joined in a single cry.
She tried to sit up, knowing that the lower she lay, the quicker death would come, but her body sank onto the wood of the table.
“Nyss! Please wake up!” Hart begged.
Nyssa wanted to comfort him, but her words turned into another cough.
“I love you, Nyss.” The computer gave a hissing sigh. “Please, tell him to take care of you for me.”
Lights flashed. Something popped and fizzed, sending sparks across the room. Nyssa screamed, curling into herself.
A breath of air tickled her face, a draft from somewhere. She tried to sit up, but her head spun, and she fell into darkness.
Chapter Sixteen
The lights flickered. Ellis stared into the handheld, but the screen had gone black.
“What was that?” O’Hara frowned.
Aito moaned and pulled himself to his feet. “I’m not sure.”
Pounding feet echoed outside the study.
“Jamison!” a voice shouted. “The boss is dead.”
Ellis started. Aito and O’Hara exchanged a confused look.
“What? How?” Jamison voiced what Ellis was thinking.
“I don’t know. He was pumping gas into that girl’s prison and then … it was like the room exploded. Lightning shot through the door. It fried him! I was standing a few feet back, and my hair was still singed.”
“Well, what do we do?”
“If he’s dead, we ain’t gettin’ paid. I say grab what we can and get out of here.”
O’Hara
turned her attention to the door, ramming into it with her shoulder.
Ellis swallowed, trying to sort the confusion, fear, and hope that warred in his mind. “Wait. There’s something Nyssa taught me once. Do you have a hairpin?”
O’Hara nodded.
Ellis reseated himself in his chair and wheeled to the door. Oh God, please let her be all right somehow. Please!
He picked the lock at a speed Nyssa would’ve been proud of and rolled into the empty hallway. No sign of Jamison or any of Rivera’s other heavies. “Let’s get to the elevator.”
A hand clamped down on Ellis’s arm, and he looked up into O’Hara’s pinched face.
“Ellis, whatever you find up there …” She exhaled. “I’m sorry I failed you, failed her, but please, you shouldn’t go alone. Not without knowing what you’ll find.”
“Then come if you want to, but we need to go fast.”
As they hurried down the hall, Ellis regretted that he’d never adjusted his chair to be able to go much beyond a walking pace. It just hadn’t been a practical need. Seriously, I’m going to fix that when we get through with this.
The doors of the elevator clanged shut. Something had blown out the automated control, but the hand-powered crank his father had installed as a backup still worked. Still, this further delay ate at Ellis.
“Here let me,” O’Hara offered.
“I’ve got it,” Ellis snapped. She recoiled. He steadied himself. “I’m stronger than I look, all right? When you only have your arms, they get … I’ve got this.”
She nodded and backed away. Ellis grasped the crank and put all his frustration into getting them to the top floor. The rusty gears groaned and creaked. When they reached the top, Ellis propelled himself out the door.
Half the lights in the workshop had all been blown out and brown lines marked where the wiring had once been. The metal door to the laboratory and office sat open and before it lay a body. Ellis didn’t give Rivera’s corpse a second glance, though O’Hara stooped over him to check for a pulse.
He hurried into the office then the lab. Shattered glass crunched under his wheels, and a small fire flickered within the broken monitor of the main computer. His eyes smarted at the trace of gas still remaining in the room, though most seemed to have dissipated through the open doors.
“Nyss?” he called. Ellis cast a desperate glance around the room. He found her curled into a bundle on top of the table.
Ellis pulled her off the table onto his lap. She lay limp against him, still warm to the touch, but so terrifyingly still. His heart pounded as he pressed his lips against hers, searching for breath. His fingers caressed her neck, desperate for a pulse. “Nyss! Nyss! Please say something.”
A weak heartbeat throbbed beneath her skin like the tick of a watch in a pocket. Relief swept through him.
Somewhere in the distance a klaxon sounded. O’Hara rushed into the room. “The police are here … is she?”
“She needs a doctor.” Ellis rolled past O’Hara, still gripping Nyssa to his chest.
O’Hara nodded. “We can have an ambulance take her to the hospital.”
“No, she won’t get the best care. Call Clarence. Have him get his private physician and set up a room.” A glint caught Ellis’s eye. His breath caught in his throat as he took Nyssa’s tiny hand and stared at the ring glistening on her finger.
“The police are going to want to question her,” O’Hara said.
“The police can go shock themselves.” Ellis scowled. “I’m taking her home.”
***
Nyssa’s head ached and her mouth tasted as if she’d been chewing on metal shavings, but pain meant life. Another sensation invaded her consciousness, a cold trickle almost like water running down her throat, but not choking her. Something pressed against her face. She flailed out and pulled it away. The cold flow stopped.
Her eyelashes weighed against her cheeks, but she somehow forced them open. She was gripping a rubber suction cup attached to a tube. Oxygen streamed from it.
For a moment everything blended together, then her vision focused, and she found herself lying in a bed with pillows plumped beneath her shoulders. The room was clean and bright with blue linen curtains and a cherrywood wardrobe.
“Nyss?”
She turned her head at the familiar voice and stared. Ellis sat at her side, his eyes wide.
“Ellis?” she whispered.
He gripped her hand. “Thank God, you’re up. The doctor said you’d be all right, but I still couldn’t help but worry.” He leaned over and kissed her.
The warmth of his touch enlivened her, and she struggled to sit upright.
“Easy,” he cautioned. “You’ve been out for hours.”
“How did I get here? What happened to Rivera?”
His brows furrowed. “You don’t know? Well, something triggered an electrical feedback that channeled through the metal doors of the laboratory, down the tube he was pumping the gas through, like it was a lightning rod. It killed him. I couldn’t tell what triggered the surge, so I assumed you did it somehow.”
“I didn’t …” She tried to sit up, but dizziness overcame her. What happened? That flash of light … Hart! Oh no! “The … the computer?” she stammered. “What happened to the computer?”
“The computer? It was blown out when I got to the lab.” Ellis’s frown deepened with worry. “The surge must’ve fried it. Why? What was on the computer?”
She shook her head, suddenly feeling numb. Hart did it. Of course, but he had to know what it would do to him … The computer’s last words flitted through her memory. Oh, Hart, I’m so sorry.
“Hey, don’t cry. Nyss, what’s wrong?” Ellis stroked her cheek.
She managed to get her arms about his neck and bury her face against his chest. “It’s … it’s a long story … Oh, Ellis, I missed you so much. I was so stupid and … and it … oh, Ellis …” A sob forced its way up her throat. She shuddered, trying to push it down, but her body still felt weak, easy prey for her ravaged emotions. Her fingers found his dark, wavy hair, as his lips connected to hers, and she held on for dear life.
How can I even explain about Hart? Hart who wasn’t him … but was somehow?
She’d have to tell him, but not now. Now she’d returned to Ellis, and she needed to concentrate on that gift.
They kissed again. He eased his lips onto her cheek, then her neck, then withdrew to look her in the eye. Twining his fingers around hers, he brought her hand up and smiled. “I noticed you’re wearing the ring.”
She flushed. “Yes, I sort of found it. I hope that’s all right.”
“More than all right.” He cleared his throat. “Does that mean what I think it means?”
“I’m pretty sure it does.” She managed a weak smile.
Ellis laughed. “Blast. I’ve been engaged this whole time and I didn’t even realize it. If you don’t mind … ” He slipped the ring off her finger.
As strange as it had felt when she’d first put it on, her finger already felt naked without it.
He rested his forehead against hers. “Nyssa Glass, will you be my wife?”
She nodded, her emotions grabbing her by the throat. “Yes,” she heard herself squeak.
A grin blossomed on Ellis’s face, and he slid the ring back onto her finger. Happiness rose like a fire in her breast, and in spite of everything she’d been through, she laughed.
“And I mean now,” Ellis continued. “Or if not now as soon as legally possible. I don’t want to wait another heartbeat. Nyssa, my Nyss, please?”
“Yes,” she whispered into his ear, savoring the shiver that ran through him. “Yes to all of it.”
“Good. I’ll have Clarence—that’s my lawyer; you’ll love him—make the legal arrangements. I bet he can get us an expedited license. He’s clever that way.”
Nyssa’s stomach twisted at the mention of the legal system. “But I’m wanted here. There’s evidence that I’m innocent. Rivera had it. We have to find
it!”
“Shh!” He held up his hand. “It’s all right. O’Hara—she’s working with us now, long story—called me about an hour ago and said they found tapes in Rivera’s study, practically gift-wrapped. She thinks Aito might’ve taken them out of the safe as a final parting shot to Rivera … though we can’t ask him because he somehow vanished into thin air before the police arrived at the manor.”
“Aito? Is he on our side, too?” Her head felt like rusty gears, barely keeping up. “What else did I miss while I was out?”
“Well, as soon as the doctor assured me you were going to be all right, I sent a telegram to San Azula. Mrs. H and Theo were worried sick when I left them, so I wanted them to know you were all right.” He eased a stray lock of hair away from her eyes. “I can’t believe I almost lost you.”
Nyssa started to smile, but it caught in her throat. “I sort of feel like … like I did lose you. Ellis, there’s something about the computer I need to tell you.”
Chapter Seventeen
Nyssa stirred, savoring the cool comfort of the pillow beneath her head. The aches plaguing her body had melted away like heated wax, and she just wanted to melt away with them.
Ellis’s arm snaked around her waist, pulling her against him. He pushed back her hair and kissed the nape of her neck. A shiver cut through her.
“Good morning, Mrs. Dalhart,” he whispered.
She laughed and rolled over to embrace him. “Good morning, Mr. Dalhart.” They kissed until she needed to come up for breath.
Nyssa found Ellis’s hand, and his long fingers entwined with hers.
“Do you think we’ll ever be able to recover Hart?” she asked.
His smile faded. “The surge wiped out all the data on the computers, Hart’s program included. I’m sorry. I know you bonded with him over the last few days, but he’s gone.”
Her heart ached, and she closed her eyes. “I feel so guilty. He gave his life for me.”
“Was he technically alive, though?” Ellis stroked her face. “He was basically a recording of my personality from what you’ve told me, not an individual in his own right.”
