“I’ll fix you something to eat. Let’s start with soup.” He turned around to step toward the kitchen area.
Olivia took the opportunity to more fully scrutinize him. She figured he was about thirty. He had on faded jeans and a white T-shirt. His feet were bare, which drew her attention. Something about a man’s bare feet…
She drew her gaze up his body, past his fine ass to his broad shoulders. Yeah, he was definitely good-looking. His hair was a dark red that had probably been orange when he was a child. Now it was almost brown. It was a little long, which wasn’t surprising if he hadn’t left this apartment for weeks. He hadn’t shaved in a few days either, which she found attractive, especially when he rubbed his chin.
She’d always had a thing for redheads.
She shook herself from that absurd thought and glanced around the apartment instead.
He wasn’t kidding. It was small. She could see everything except the inside of the bathroom. It gave new meaning to the term studio.
The kitchen area was nothing but one wall of cabinets, counter space, a sink, and an oven/stove/microwave combo. It didn’t have a dishwasher. He grabbed a few things from the pantry and fridge and set them on the small table for two.
Olivia turned her attention to the sofa and armchair that sat across from a large flat-screen television mounted to the wall. It looked very modern and out of place in the meager apartment. Granted, Damon would have been bored out of his mind waiting for her to wake up. It would stand to reason he would have sunk a lot of money into the latest modern technology to pass the time.
Her gaze landed on the coffee table next. Yep, he also had a laptop. The thinnest, smallest laptop she’d ever seen. Was he some sort of tech geek?
As he returned to her side, he glanced back and forth to where she once again stared at the television. He was holding a steaming mug of what she surmised was canned chicken noodle soup, and it smelled delicious.
Her stomach growled. “The picture on that television must be amazing,” she said conversationally.
He shrugged. “I have no idea. Never turned it on.”
Her eyes shot wide. “Seriously? Then why did you buy it? It must have cost a fortune.”
He frowned and spoke in a strangely cautious voice. “This was a furnished apartment. It was already mounted on the wall when I moved in. Nothing in this apartment is mine except my clothes.”
She didn’t have time to process what he said because he sat on the edge of the bed and distracted her with the soup. “It’s going to be awkward, but you should probably let me hold the mug and help you for now.”
“Feed me?” She didn’t like this plan.
“Well, your hands are a little unsteady, and you might need a few days to build up the motor skills.”
She lifted a hand and flexed it. He might be right. Though she sincerely hoped she made quick strides to recover because the invalid thing wasn’t going to work for her.
So, she let him feed her. It was as awkward as he’d suggested, having him spoon warm soup into her mouth while she clasped a napkin in her hand and occasionally dabbed it on her chin.
His expression was pensive, dark blue eyes on her lips the entire time. When he was done, she felt stronger, but she also hoped next time she could feed herself.
“Now, answer about a hundred questions,” she demanded after he put the dishes in the sink.
He headed for the armchair and dragged it to the side of the bed, and then he sat and leaned back, eyes on her. “Okay, but please keep in mind that I’m not the one who put you in this position. I didn’t know anything about you until a few months ago. My job is to keep us safe, and I intend to do that at all costs.”
“A few months ago? I thought you said I’d been in a coma for a month? I didn’t know you before that.”
He swiped a hand down his face. “It might be better if you just listen for a bit until I’ve filled in some of the blanks.”
A buzzing sounded across the room, and Damon groaned as he shoved to standing. “Sorry. Hold that thought.” He padded to the coffee table to grab a phone she hadn’t noticed before. “Hello… Yeah, she’s awake… She’s totally fine. How’s Dade?... Good… I know… Why don’t you wait a bit? Let’s discuss this again in a few hours. Maybe tomorrow?... Okay… Yes… Thanks.” He ended the call as he walked back toward her and then dropped it on the bedside table.
Olivia glanced at it. “Weird phone.” She nodded toward the coffee table next. “So is your laptop. They’re so thin. As is your never-watched television. You’re quite the techie.”
He chuckled and then leaned back in his chair again, running a hand through his hair. “I’m definitely techie, but you wouldn’t know it from that piece-of-shit burner phone or that ancient computer.”
She opened her mouth, but didn’t know how to respond to his strange declaration.
She didn’t have to because Damon leaned forward and held up a hand, stopping her. He set his elbows on his knees and met her gaze. “I’m going to say something that is going to shock you beyond belief, but until it’s out there, nothing else I say will make a bit of sense.”
“Okaaaay…” She propped herself up higher so she was almost sitting and wrapped her arms around her middle. She realized for the first time she was wearing a hospital gown, and probably nothing else. Great.
She’d also been alone with Damon for a month?
Greater. At least she hadn’t lost her sense of sarcasm. “Talk.”
“You haven’t just been gone a month, Livvy. Before that, you were in a cryostat.”
She lifted a brow. “A cryostat? One of those things used to preserve people?” Her blood ran cold. No. Way. Did he take her for an idiot? She dropped her arms and shoved a few inches away from him, realizing quickly she couldn’t exactly run. She wouldn’t have the strength.
“Yes. Did you realize they had them at the bunker?” he continued, ignoring her angst.
She was shaking her head, but out of incredulity instead of denial. “Yes. I mean, I saw them. No one was in them. Dr. Boyden told me about them. They were just there, like something from the future. Not something anyone would use.”
Damon didn’t move, nor did he comment on her stress as she continued to inch away from him. It wouldn’t do any good. He was much stronger than her, especially today.
He was patiently watching her. Waiting for her to absorb what he’d said? “Did you put me in one?”
He gave a slight grin and shook his head. “No. I was in college at the time. I had barely decided to focus on medicine when you were preserved.” He shot up straighter and swallowed as if just realizing he’d unintentionally disclosed something secret. And before she could process, he continued. “You were preserved ten years ago.”
She froze, eyes wide, mouth hanging open, unable to make a sound. Surely, she’d misunderstood him.
“I’m so sorry.” He rubbed his hands together and held her gaze. “There’s no easy way to tell you. I assume Dr. Boyden preserved you. I don’t know why. When I found you, I thought you were sick with the same disease he has, but one day I found a buried file and discovered the original information I had on you was a lie. You were never sick.”
He was rambling. She shook her head as if it were full of cobwebs. He needed to stop talking, so she could catch up. She held up a hand, and he quieted. She was also shaking. Her arms wouldn’t hold her up, and she let herself fall onto her side and curled into a ball, facing Damon.
The blankets had worked themselves down her body, and she started shivering as cool air hit her back. She squeezed her eyes closed tight, willing all this information to be a joke.
Damon approached. She sensed him, his clean scent filling her nose as he leaned over her. She had no idea what his intentions were, but she stiffened further. In a full panic, she held her breath. But all Damon did was tug the sheet and blanket over her shoulders and tuck them around her.
He sat on the edge of the bed next, his hand on her waist, and said no
thing.
Her mind raced. Ten years? Was he for real? That would explain the phone, the computer, and the television…
Why? Why why why why why?
She wished she could go back to sleep and make everything go away, but instead, her brain refused to shut down. So many questions.
Finally, she relaxed marginally, still gripping her hands into fists, but running out of the strength to keep her entire frame tight. She blinked her eyes open and stared at Damon’s thigh. His hand hadn’t moved from her hip. Protectively? In solidarity? Out of sorrow?
She licked her lips. “Go on,” she finally managed.
“You sure?” His voice was low, concerned. “We can do this later. There’s no rush. You’re overwhelmed.”
She let out a shocked, sardonic chuckle. “You think?”
He removed his hand from her waist and set it in his lap.
She missed the contact. Human contact. Absurd as that might be, considering she still wasn’t positive she could even trust this man. It was time to ask a few questions of her own. “What kind of doctor are you?”
He sighed. “I have a PhD in cryobiology.”
Of course he does. “How did you find me?”
“I’ve been working for the government for several years. Have you heard of Project DEEP?”
She searched her mind. “I think Dr. Boyden mentioned it.”
“It’s a government organization kind of like the CDC. Disease & Epidemic Eradication & Prevention,” he stated.
“Yeah, I guess I’ve heard of it.” She leaned her head back to look up at him.
“Well, the New Mexico bunker was a small operation. Meanwhile, there was another bunker in Colorado that had twenty-one scientists working on diseases at the same time Dr. Boyden was working in New Mexico.”
She nodded, encouraging him to continue.
“While Dr. Boyden was sick with myasthenia gravis, the team in Colorado all got sick with a rare form of viral anemia, AP12. The government made the decision to preserve all of them along with the general who’d originally come to the bunker with the disease.”
“The general got them all sick? Didn’t they know he was contagious?”
“Yes. And he was quarantined. But there was an accident in the lab some time later. A beaker broke, and everyone was exposed.”
She gasped. “Seriously?”
He nodded.
She stared at him, piecing this together. “So, you’ve brought them all back now?”
“Yes. I partnered with a man named Ryan Anand. He was the son of two of the preserved scientists. He found a cure for AP12 while I worked on developing a reanimation chamber. We’ve slowly revived everyone.”
“Dr. Boyden?”
Damon shook his head. “He’s still in a cryostat. We haven’t found a cure for myasthenia gravis, but even if we did, I believe he was too far progressed to survive.”
“Why were you able to revive all those scientists in Colorado? Even with a cure, dead is dead.”
He pursed his lips and then took a deep breath that caused his chest to lift before blowing it out. “The government didn’t wait until they legally died on their own to preserve them.”
She jerked back several inches. “Whoa. You’re serious?”
He nodded slowly. “Saved their lives. Before they were in the end stages of a disease that would inevitably kill them, they agreed to be preserved.”
“How?” She tried to imagine a scenario in which she was essentially frozen alive. Obviously she knew nothing about cryonics, and since it had apparently also happened to her without her even knowing, she realized there had to be more to it.
“It’s easy to stop the heart and then preserve the body in a controlled environment.”
“Right,” she whispered. “And that’s what Dr. Boyden or someone else must have done to me.”
“Apparently.”
“But why?” Suddenly, the man she’d looked up to for several months while working as his personal nurse seemed like an ogre. Who would do something like this to another human being?
“We have no idea. I’m hoping you can provide information now that you’re awake.”
She cringed. “I don’t have any information. I was the man’s nurse. I did nothing but take care of him as he got sicker and sicker.”
Damon lifted a hand and gently set it on her hip again. “I bet you know more than you think. We’ll figure it out.” His face grew serious, his brows pulling closer together. “I need to ask you something.”
She frowned back. She had about a thousand questions. It wasn’t his turn to ask anything. It wouldn’t be for about a week by her calculation.
Nevertheless, he continued. “Do you remember being hypnotized, before you were preserved, I mean?”
She slowly shook her head. “Hypnotized? What? No.”
“Did you ever work with a hypnotist at all?”
“No. But Dr. Boyden had a hypnotist. The man came to the bunker several times a week to work with him. He said it helped him deal emotionally with the disease.”
“Makes sense, but you’re sure you weren’t also hypnotized?”
Olivia leaned back and stared at the ceiling. “Could he have done so without my knowledge?”
“It’s unlikely, since the trigger word that dragged you under was your own name.” Damon was still staring at her, but she didn’t think he was seeing anything. He was inside his head. Finally, he blinked and met her gaze again. “What’s the last thing you remember?”
She closed her eyes, trying to recall. “I think I was in Dr. Boyden’s bedroom. I came in to check on him, and he was with the hypnotist. He was still mobile, but he was needing to rest more and more often. I started to leave, but they asked me to stay. Dr. Boyden said I might find it fascinating and I should watch. So, I sat in an armchair near the bed and watched.”
“And that’s all you remember?”
“Yes. It’s weird. I can’t think of a thing past that moment.” She winced and fisted her hands. “Do you think the guy hypnotized me, instead?”
Damon winced, nodding. “I suspect so.”
“And then Dr. Boyden stopped my heart and put me in a cryostat?”
“It would seem that way.”
“Why?” she shouted. “What purpose could it possibly serve for me to hold on to some word for a decade?”
“I don’t know yet, but a team of people are working on it.”
“You keep saying that.”
He nodded. “I know it’s vague, but that’s all I’ve got. It would appear some of the members of DEEP were hypnotized too.”
She winced. “How could you not have known that already? I mean, you said some of them have been awake for a while.”
He hesitated.
“Damon…”
After a deep inhale, he spoke again. “Because the word that triggered them is the one you muttered over and over when I said your name.”
“Oh God. I unlocked something?”
“Yeah. Like a key. Exactly like a key apparently, since the word you spoke means key.”
“What is the word?”
He hesitated again. “I’m not sure it’s a good idea to say it out loud. The entire team is being cautious with it as we speak. When I told Dade, he went into a hypnotic state like you did and rambled a series of numbers.”
“Yeah, but it shouldn’t affect me. It’s my name that affected me, right?”
“You might be right, but I’m not sure I’m willing to test it right now.”
She sighed. This was making her head spin. “Who’s Dade?”
“One of the original DEEP team members. He’s more or less in charge of organizing everything and directing the operations in Montana.” Damon reached for his phone. “And I should call him and make sure he’s working on this hypnosis angle.”
She nodded. “You should.”
Damon picked up the phone and punched in some numbers. Seconds later, he spoke. “Hey, it’s Damon. Please tell me you’re already look
ing for a hypnotist.” Damon put the phone on speaker and held it between him and Olivia.
“Of course. We’ve been questioning everyone all day. I remember there was a man who came to the bunker in the year before everyone was preserved to provide hypnosis to anyone who wanted to give it a try. I was skeptical at first. Hypnosis isn’t something I believe in. But since several of the others seemed to feel more relaxed after their sessions, I decided to give it a shot. Apparently, I became one of the guinea pigs. Stupid me,” he murmured.
Olivia gasped. Could it be the same hypnotist she’d met?
Damon responded. “I’ve got Livvy with me on speaker phone. Don’t use her real name.”
“Got it. Did you also see a hypnotist, Livvy?”
“No, but Dr. Boyden did. I only ever sat in on one of their sessions, so I guess something must have happened then.”
“Possible.”
“I’d say probable at this point,” Damon pointed out.
Olivia grabbed Damon’s forearm. “Do you suppose it was the same man?” She turned back to face the phone in his hand. “This was an older man. Maybe mid-sixties. Tall. Lanky. Full head of gray hair. Thick glasses. Black rims. He wore jeans, which I thought was odd considering how serious he was, but he also wore a bow tie that never matched his shirt.”
“How the hell do you remember him so distinctly?” Damon asked.
“I just saw him yesterday by my calendar,” she pointed out.
Damon winced. “Right. Sorry.”
“That matches the guy I saw. Hang on a sec.” The phone muffled as if Dade had covered it with his hand. A moment later, he returned. “Yeah, he came here often, and those who wanted to work with him did so voluntarily. The government paid for it.”
“I’ll bet they did,” Damon muttered.
“How many of your team used his skills?” Olivia asked.
“Fifteen.”
Damon was holding Olivia’s gaze as he asked the next question. “Have you tried the key word out on everyone?”
“Yes. Six of them responded just as violently as I did to the key word and recited numbers.”
“Some people aren’t as susceptible to hypnosis as others.” Damon sighed.
“Or,” Dade added, “the hypnotist only needed six people to hold information.”
Reviving Olivia (Project DEEP Book 7) Page 3
