Instinctual 2 (3 page)

At first, Robert didn’t respond, so Jake grabbed the whole buckle and moved it up and down on Robert’s lap. That got his attention.

Robert’s head shot downwards as he watched his seatbelt moving up and down on its own. He grabbed The Gladiator’s arm and both men looked on, bewildered.

“What the hell is that?” Robert whispered.

“Uh… sir… Your seatbelt is moving on its own.”

“I know that! How the hell is it doing it?” The seatbelt kept moving up and down so Robert grabbed it to try and hold it down and even as he did so, it kept trying to force its way up.

Jake couldn’t help but laugh at the look of astonishment on the two men’s faces. “Come on, Robert, you should be getting used to this by now.”

Jake let go of the belt and moved his hand to just above Robert’s hair. He focused all his energy, and in seconds his mentor looked like he’d stuck his finger in a power socket. Every strand of hair stood on end. The Gladiator’s eyeballs were huge as he froze in place. As if sensing his man’s unrelenting gaze, Robert turned to see two wide eyes glued to him.

“What is it?”

The Gladiator didn’t speak as he lifted a hand and just pointed at Robert’s hair that was standing straight up and only moments earlier had been brushed neatly in place. It was filled with powerful static.

“What the hell is it?”

“Your hair, sir!”

Robert put his hand up to his head, left it there for a couple of seconds and then lowered it into his lap.

“Huh,” was all he said to the Gladiator.

Jake could tell that the cogs were turning in Robert’s head, but knew he was trying hard to keep calm and not admit that he was out of his element with all the paranormal activity.

The Gladiator watched Robert like he’d grown two heads. The dark giant of African American origin clearly was at a loss for words too as he wore a look of consternation.

Rob looked sideways at him and mumbled, “Just a bit of static. Nothing to worry about.”

The Gladiator didn’t answer, just turned to face the front, his nostrils flaring, a vein popping out in his neck. It was enough to know that the soldier had been affected by the strange happening but had been trained well to keep his face emotionless.

Jake sat back in his chair and closed his eyes, turning his focus from Robert to Kate. At least for the time being she was hanging in there.

***

Robert had already lost himself to his thoughts.

I suppose I’m going to have to call Jenny and explain. She’s going to be pissed to think I suspected Kate was in trouble before I left the States and I didn’t tell her. She’s going to want to come to Italy. Shit!

He squeezed the bridge of his nose and squeezed his eyes shut tightly. He knew how the conversation would play out. Jenny would be hysterical. She’d already suspected something about this job had been suspicious. It was a call he didn’t want to make but knew he would have to when they reached the hospital. She knew the drill. Working on an important case sometimes didn’t allow the luxury of calling home every day for a chat. As much as the no contact rule held, they both found it difficult.

In some ways, Robert felt like he’d betrayed Jenny by not being upfront. It was their daughter, after all. Christ, maybe he’d dealt with it all wrong. Should he have brought Jenny with him? He thought it had been the right thing to do at the time, keeping her in the dark and keeping her safe. Now, he didn’t know. At least if they’d flown together they could have supported each other. Jenny would have to fly halfway around the world alone.

As much as he abhorred the thought of bringing her into danger, he figured if she was here, she’d be able to stay at the hospital with Kate while he went off to fight the bad guys. That is if Kate survived. He needed to call his wife as soon as possible.

The pilot talked to the approaching hospital as they descended towards the roof helipad. Robert could see medical staff with a gurney waiting for them. So far, Kate was holding her own. It would remain to be seen how long that would last. He felt so helpless.

The chopper landed safely and Gary was out before they’d barely touched down. Robert was next, giving the medics the room they needed to transport Kate onto the waiting gurney. The two men moved aside, Gary hugging Robert.

“I’m so sorry all this has happened, Rob. I know how worried you are. Let’s just pray to God she makes it.”

“Thanks, Gary. It means a lot to me that you’re here. I need to call Jenny and let her know and organize a flight for her. She’s not going to take it well. I lied to her.”

“You did what you thought was best in order to keep her safe. She can’t argue with that.”

“No, I know, but I can’t help but feel I went about it all wrong.”

“Look, I’m heading back to base with The Gladiator as we discussed. You just take some time to make sure your family is safe. Stay here at the hospital, make sure Kate’s recovering and get Jenny on a plane. I’ll deal with the rest.”

“Oh man! I don’t even have a change of clothes. I left in such a hurry, my belongings are back at Kate’s apartment.”

“I’ve got to do a detour to pick up The Gladiator’s things, so if you give me a key, I’ll pick up your bags and have someone deliver them here.”

“I don’t have a key, Gary, and I locked the door on the way out from the inside.”

“We’ll get your bag, Rob. Don’t worry.” He nodded to the disappearing gurney, urging Rob to follow.

Robert hadn’t remembered seeing a purse or any other item on the ledge where Kate’s body had been found. Had she not been carrying one? That seemed highly unlikely. He knew his daughter had to carry her cell for work purposes and she wouldn’t have left the house without her keys. Maybe they’d fallen into the ocean when she’d slipped. That was possible. The other option was that someone had taken them if she had met with foul play. He needed to find out exactly what had happened but he doubted that would happen until Kate woke up.

“You might want to cancel the accommodation you had booked for me too, seeing as I won’t be needing it.”

“Will do. I’m on it.”

Before Rob left he walked back to the chopper to where The Gladiator had exited and was stretching his legs and thanked him for all his help, letting him know they would be in touch, but for now he was to take orders from Gary until told otherwise. The Organization was still their top priority and would remain so until they could weed out and destroy the ones with all the power. The Gladiator’s work on this case had only just begun.

“I’m sorry I didn’t do a better job of protecting your daughter, sir,” said the soldier. His eyes held some sort of emotion that looked to Rob like compassion. It was the first time he’d seen it since meeting the large man and was grateful for whatever comfort was offered.

“What’s done is done. What we need to focus on now is finding Carlos Santini and the goons that are pulling all the strings. Gary will fill you in on all the details once you’re back in Rome.”

“Yes, sir!” He held out his giant, meaty hand for Robert, and as they shook he added, “I hope your daughter makes a full recovery.”

“Thank you. So do I.” Rob turned and started walking towards his daughter.

Chapter Four

Carlos had woken to his stomach growling after an odd night of sleep. At one point he thought he’d heard voices and sensed someone in the room with him but that was impossible. He was as alone as anyone could get, unless the corpse in the cell down the hall had decided to zombie-walk to scare the crap out of him. Speaking of which, he had a job to do and the sooner he got it over with the better.

It was his first official day of playing nurse and he was nervous. He hoped he could pull it off and didn’t somehow kill the patient. That would not go down well with the powers that be. That would surely seal his own demise.

Running a hand through his hair and wiping some sleep from his eyes, he changed into a fresh pair of boxers and dressed in some jeans and a clean black tee before wandering into the kitchen to see what he could slap together for breakfast.

The living quarters were as he’d left it, darkened from the closed blinds. He pressed a button on the remote to let in some much needed light before heading to the walk-in-pantry. He needn’t have worried about starving. There was every conceivable type of cereal, neatly stacked in rows. He grabbed a bowl and decided on muesli, trying to keep to his healthy eating plan. Eyeing the other shelves, he couldn’t help but wonder why there were stacks and stacks of canned foods, condiments, spices and herbs. Had they all been brought for him? The pantry was so huge, he imagined the food would last an entire year. There was no way in hell he was staying any longer than the few days that had initially been offered. The place gave him the creeps.

He wasn’t looking forward to the task at hand but at least it would give him something to do.

After he’d eaten a rather humble breakfast he decided he needed to go take care of his patient and be done with it for the day.

The thought of even venturing from his safe confines of luxury into the eerie dungeon outside had him on edge.

He grabbed the lonely cell key off the hook attached to the side of the refrigerator that The Lord had instructed he use, thanking God he didn’t have to take the gigantic bundle of keys on the hook beside it. How would anyone ever figure out which key to use on that knot of metal? Come to think of it, why bother even locking the cell when there was no one else on the island? It’s not as if anybody was going to come in and steal a corpse. Were they? Obviously The Lord left nothing to chance.

Taking a deep breath, he opened the large wooden doors and started the walk down the empty corridor. Immediately the temperature dropped around five degrees, bringing goose-bumps to his skin and a shiver that quickly worked its way to his bones.

Could he actually pull this thing off? Never before had he been asked to do something like this. Why couldn’t a doctor have been hired to babysit? It didn’t make sense. Nor should it, after all, it was The Organization.

Upon reaching the cell he came to a short stop and stood looking in. He searched for any sign of life the patient might be displaying but was only met with the same monotone beeps as yesterday. At least he was still alive and would hopefully stay that way while on Carlos’ watch. He didn’t even want to think about what would happen if the guy died in the next few days. He shivered even thinking about it and shook his head to erase the thought.

It was hard to bring himself to insert the key into the lock. His heart was hammering and his hands were shaking. Shit, this sucked! The thought of removing the guy’s waste bag made him retch. He hadn’t signed on for this.

With his hands still shaking he entered the key into the keyhole, missing the first time and having to consciously stop his hand from shuddering. The door opened with a rusty squeak.

Stepping into the room, over that threshold, there was no turning back. He had to try not to lose it and make a mistake. A mistake could prove fatal.

New was blended with old as Carlos eyed all the high tech equipment that had been flown in. State of the art, if he didn’t know better. It was overtly out of place against the tumbledown walls of the cell, which appeared chalky in appearance, or maybe they were just that old, that whatever material had been used to build the structure had calcified with age.

On a metal drawer set on wheels beside the bed were the needle, vials of drugs, and some disposable gloves all laid out, neatly like a dentist or surgeon would do. Underneath on a shelf sat bags of clear fluid and some empty ones which he assumed were the waste bags. Great.

He took a longer look at the patient than was necessary and felt a twinge of remorse.

“Sorry, man, if I do something to accidentally kill you. I know you’re a traitor and all but The Lord will have my balls if I can’t pull this off.”

Come on, Carlos. Don’t be a pussy! Just do it, for fuck’s sake!

Sweat from his brow slithered into his eyes, stinging for a second before he wiped them furiously so he could focus.

He picked up the syringe and inserted the end into the bottle of liquid, making sure to only fill it to half. He felt detached from his body as he moved to the carcass and pushed the needle into the catheter, gently squeezing until there was no liquid left. As had happened the previous day, the heart monitor spiked, causing Carlos to jump. A natural reaction to the pain medication, that’s what The Lord had explained. Perfectly normal. Still, it was pretty damn nerve-wracking to have such a responsibility.

The increased heart rate had slowed quickly the day before but that wasn’t the case on this particular day. It seemed to keep going, endlessly. Without warning, the patient thrashed his head from side to side as if feeling the liquid reaching his bloodstream. How was that possible? Was he conscious now?

“What the Goddam…?”

Carlos threw the needle on the tray and leapt back in case the patient started flailing his arms about. He moved the drawers away and stood watching on in shock, not knowing what to do. There was nothing he could do. He didn’t know how to treat anyone. Should he call The Lord?