Brain Storm (A Taylor Morrison Novel Book 1) (56 page)

“A lot of what you do could come in quite handy, to use Sean’s words. That’s why this all happened in the first place.” He stood up, tossing the newspaper in my lap. It flopped open to the front page, the headlines starring up at me. It was dated the day after the explosion.
 

I threw Mac a look, my nerves in a jumble. He gave me a reassuring nod and I gave him a heavy sigh in response. I settled back against the pillow, took a big sip of caffeine and started reading.

According to the paper, the explosion had been the result of a fuel leak in the hangar. There had been several casualties, among which were Vice Presidential Aides James Johnson and Adele Minter, respectively. The Vice President’s plane was destroyed before firefighters could get the fire under control. I let the paper drop as I finished the story, the impact of it hitting me hard.

“How much of this is true?” I asked Lars.
 

“Most of it.” He’d been moving around the room, poking at things as I’d read the paper. As I asked my question he ambled back to the chair and took a seat, ready to talk. Mac was still sitting on the bed where he’d watched me the whole time, feeling what was going through me, helping take the edge off. “Keith and Vivian both worked for the Vice President. From what we have been able to confirm, James Johnson and Adele Minter were their real names. Keith and Vivian were aliases for your benefit.”

Stunned, I felt my breath catch. Their names weren’t even real. Everything. Everything had been a lie. “Vice President Armstrong is part of this? It was his plane?” I asked, disbelieving.

“Yes. He’s head of the committee that Connors reported to, but it started long before that. In the late 60’s, early 70’s, the US Government was looking into the paranormal. The CIA in particular had an interest in weapon development. Your parents were involved.” He paused as my eyes narrowed at his words. I felt Mac shift on the end of bed, feeling my anger build. “They tested out college students and offered those that showed promise, the chance to explore their potential. They paid well and it was exciting work. Your father was a science major, your mother was studying psychology. It was a perfect match for them. Armstrong was a mover and shaker on the Hill even then. He was part of the committee that oversaw the project.”

“You’re saying my parents worked with the Government?” I shook my head, going back years in time. “ I don’t remember any of this.”
 

“Because the program had dissolved by the time you came around. Lack of evidence, no support for their theories? The Government has a tendency to cut funds to programs that don’t get results. It was deemed a failure and scrapped, but Armstrong didn’t believe it. He was sure there was something there and kept tabs on the participants, especially your parents. He was thrilled when you came along. The product of two people who showed paranormal promise was his dream come true.”

“Did he have them killed?” I demanded, the machines shifting on their wheels with the vibrations of my anger. “Did Armstrong order them killed to get to me?” I repeated when he didn’t answer.

“We don’t know, Taylor. I’d give anything if I could tell you no, but I won’t lie to you. We simply don’t know.”

They waited quietly for me to pull myself back together, to get my anger under control. I felt like I was suffocating, unable to breathe. I could hear the beat of my own heart on the monitor as it galloped out of control. The door swung open and Jenny’s head popped in, anger in her voice as she ripped into Lars and Mac.

“I said not to upset her!” she spat out. “You have to leave. Now!” She threw open the door and pointed to the hall, demanding obedience. They both ignored her, which made her even madder.
 

“It’s alright, Jenny. I’m okay,” I said trying to assure her and convince myself at the same time. “They need to be here.”

She gave me a long appraising look and then glared at Lars and slammed out of the room, leaving us sitting in silence. Surprisingly, I did feel better, more in control. Her interruption had broken the tension in the room, given me time to process a little. I wasn’t calm by any stretch of the imagination, but I was better.

“Where does Vivian come in?” I’d taken a few deep breaths and was ready to go on. “Or should I say Adele?”

“It was Armstrong’s belief, that the abilities would surface after a trauma. The death of your parents provided him the perfect means to insert someone into your life to monitor you closely. That was Adele. She had joined the program as a researcher while she was a student in University and stayed on as Armstrong’s assistant. By this time, he was moving up the rungs in the political arena and was able to pull some major strings. Adele was, in his mind, the perfect solution. What he didn’t know was that Adele was a sleeper agent for the Russians, who were working on their own research into the paranormal. Armstrong had just put you in the care of a covert Russian spy.”

“Russian?” The rest of my anger dissolved in whirl of shock and confusion. “Vivian was a Russian agent?”

“Armstrong didn’t have any idea. Adele had her own agenda, sending reports back to mother Russia, following their orders, while playing along for Armstrong. When you grew up and left home, they lost their hold on you. Armstrong arranged for Vivian to ‘die’ hoping it would push you over the edge. He had no idea of what Vivian had done to you as a child, or he might have realized it wouldn’t work.” He got up, pacing around the room again, too restless to stay still. “He needed a way to keep tabs on you and he finally had the power to make it happen. Using the Agency was his idea. What better way to watch you than to actually put a ‘Watcher’ on you. He solicited support from the same agencies that had been involved years ago, selling them on new technology and advancements in the field. He didn’t have to sell too hard. They saw the advantages of someone like you all too well. With a Watcher in place and regular reports coming in, he decided to try again. With Keith.
 

He sat back down, stretched out his legs and waited, giving me time to process the information. I wasn’t sure I could. None of it seemed real, but then again, that wasn’t surprising. Most of the life I’d lived up to now hadn’t been real.

“Let me just make sure I have this straight, okay? Vivian was a mole for Russia, using Armstrong to gather information. Hughes worked for her, and recruited Brown to help him?”.
 

“Keith worked strictly for Armstrong.” Lars nodded at me, confirming my analysis. “He wasn’t involved with Vivian except in her roll working with Armstrong.”
 

“So, why make a move to take me now? They read the reports. They had to know I had no idea how to control this thing. Why didn’t they just leave me alone? Bring me into the Agency for training?”

“Armstrong might have done that, but Vivian forced his hand. As Armstrong’s Aide, she was privy to the reports. She knew your abilities had surfaced. It would be easier to take you early, than give you time to learn to use them. Then there’s the fact that the Agency made him vulnerable.” Lars sat up in his chair, leaning forward. “Look, Armstrong had been filtering the reports that Connors sent in. As far as the committee members were concerned, there wasn’t much going on at the Agency except some advances in medical research. Nothing they could use on the paranormal front. The program was, for all intents and purposes, dissolved three years ago. Armstrong was high enough up on the ladder to funnel funds to keep thing going. Washington is such a bureaucratic mess, it wasn’t hard. As far as the Agency was concerned, nothing had changed. And it hadn’t, except there’s no committee anymore. The Agency is Armstrong’s own personal research lab. Once you became active, he didn’t need to take the risk of getting caught with his hand in the cookie jar. He could have you and pull the plug on the Agency with no one the wiser.”

Except you,
I thought, wondering who he really was and how he’d gotten his information. Russians spies, covert government operations, secret intelligence on the Vice President of the United States. Scary stuff, this.

“So what exactly did he plan to do with me after he had me? For that matter, what did the Russians want with me?” I ventured the question, figuring I had nothing to lose. Lars knew a lot, maybe he knew the answer to that too.

“Power, Taylor,” Mac cut in answering my question. “Look at the all things you’ve done already and you’ve just barely tapped into your abilities. Not to mention the fact, as Lars pointed out earlier, that your abilities are changing, strengthening. There’s no telling what you’ll be able to do months from now. Much less in five or ten years.”

“Sean’s right, Taylor. You’re an asset people are willing to kill to possess. They’re also willing to kill to keep others from having you. That’s why Vivian had the explosives in the car. They’d rather kill you than let someone else get their hands on you.”

I leaned back onto my pillow and closed my eyes, knowing they were right. I wasn’t angry anymore. I was heartsick, the sadness inside me almost unbearable. So much death, so many lives ruined and for what?
 

“If it’s not you, Taylor, it will be someone else,” Mac said quietly. “Others like Abby. There are people out there that know it’s possible. They won’t stop now.”

“No, I don’t suppose they will,” I murmured, resigned to a fate I would have given anything to avoid. I wasn’t the only one. At his mention of Abby, my mind had flown to Connors and what they would do to him, if they knew what he could do. The very thought turned my stomach. “Where’s Armstrong? I want to talk to him.”

“That’s not possible,” Lars answered. “We have let it slip out that you were, in fact, killed in the explosion. It’s not in the paper, as technically you’re already dead, but Armstrong knew better. So did the Russians. As of now, as far as they’re concerned, you are no longer an option. We’d like to keep it that way.”

“Armstrong can’t get away with this. Sean is right. If it’s not me, it will be someone else and I’m not willing to sit back and hide while he does it. He has to be stopped.” I sat up, fully intending to get out of bed and go find Armstrong on my own. The sudden wave of dizziness had me clutching at the mattress to keep from falling over. Lars was on his feet beside me, ready to catch me just in case.
 

“Just what was the plan here? You’ve been out of it for two months.
 
Awake for just a few hours and you’re ready to take on Armstrong? Not gonna happen. You try it again and I’ll handcuff you to the bed,” he said, shoving me back into the pillows. He was clearly angry and he wasn’t the only one. I’d had about enough and was ready to let him know it.

“Don’t even think about it, Taylor,” he growled out. ”You won’t win. Your mental stuff doesn’t work on me.”

It was a challenge, pure and simple and I rose to it, giving him a shove back. He just stood there, glowering at me. I gave him a harder shove and got the same results.
 

“Yeah,” he said, raising a cocky eyebrow. “How bout that?
 

“What’s going on?” Mac asked, concern in his voice.

“She just tried it out to see if I was right or not. Twice. It doesn’t work.”

“How long have you known?” Mac asked, his eyes widening. “And for that matter, how do you know she even tried it now.”
 

“I can feel her. Feel her try it. I felt it the first time in the hangar, when she threw Connors past me like he was a fly. She meant to throw me too, but it didn’t work,” he said dryly. “If she had succeeded, I wouldn’t have been able to get to her in time.”
 

He threw me a warning look and turned to sit down. I moved the chair. Not much. Just enough to let him know it. I might not be able to touch him, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t throw something at him. He pulled the chair back and sat down, sighing heavily.

“I get the point Taylor. You get mine. Stay in that bed.” He rubbed his hand over his face in frustration. “Look, you don’t have to worry about Armstrong. I agree, he has to stopped and he will be. We’re ready now. We’ve just been waiting for you to recover. When we take him down, the Agency goes with him. The labs, the equipment, everything has to disappear. We needed to get everyone cleared out of here and give Jenny time to get you back on your feet before we made our move.
 

“Just who are you, Lars?” I asked, deciding it seemed a good time to clear things up. Especially since he seemed to be the one in control now. “And who exactly is ‘we’? For that matter, is Lars even your real name?”

He said nothing. Just looked at me and I could tell he was debating on what and how much to tell me. It bothered me immensely that he knew more than I did about what was going on and had the ability to share or not share.
 

“Sean, you need to leave,” Lars ordered, never taking his eyes off mine.

Mac hesitated for a minute, unsure. I sent him a message that I was fine, never taking my eyes off Lars. Then I felt him get up and leave the room and braced myself for what was to come.

FORTY-SIX

“ARE YOU GOING to have to kill me after you tell me?” I asked, deadpan, hearing the door close as Mac left the room.

“If it comes to that.” He gave me a tight smile and leaned forward. “I work for a consortium made up of some of the top men and women of this nation. They are not government, not political. They are watchdogs, guarding the citizens, the constitution and the security of this nation. They go where the government can’t or won’t. I head up a covert team of highly trained specialized men. We do what needs to be done.”