Jaden Baker (73 page)

“Not now, but you will. We all need something. That’s why we’re paying you.” Joseph picked himself up gently and started for the door. “You can go home in the next day or so.”

“What will you do with Jaden?” Libby asked, standing up, following him until his two bodyguards held her back.

Without looking at her, Madrid answered. “I wouldn’t concern yourself with that. You won’t see him again. Try to move on.” And he was gone, his bodyguards following him, leaving her alone again.

Joseph wound his way through a series of hallways, making lefts and rights, heading toward the center of the maze where his project lay in wait. When he came to the door, he spoke into a speaker: “Joseph Madrid.” Then he typed in a code and the door rose into the ceiling.

Inside, reclining in a special chair, much like a dentist’s chair, only with leather manacles and straps, was his current project—soon to be former. A new collar had been welded to his neck and covered with a flexible and soft material, ensuring lifelong comfort. There was no tracking device on him, not this time.

Jaden’s eyes flickered under their lids, and his legs and arms twitched occasionally. A halo on the head of the chair, arcing over Jaden’s head, buzzed. It was new technology, developed over the past ten years, allowing Jaden to dream. They were dreams Archcroft created for him, letting his brain exercise and experience freedom, transferred from a computer and into his brain via the radio array installed there over ten years ago. Making him dream was the safest way to keep him; unconscious, just not in a vegetative state.

Sam Hull stood on the other side of Jaden’s chair, looking over final notes.

“He’s been given all his immunizations,” Sam said. “We just need to run a few more tests and he’ll be ready for shipment.”

“Power down the dream cycle,” Madrid said. “I need to speak with him.”

“He’ll be groggy,” Sam said. He turned a knob on the arc, and the buzzing dwindled to a low hum before shutting down.

Jaden’s eyes flickered to a stop.

“Jaden,” Madrid said, shaking him. There was no reaction.

Sam pulled smelling salts from a drawer and snapped them under Jaden’s nose. He jerked his head away. His eyes opened and he looked around the room.

“Hello again,” Madrid said. “I have some final words for you before we part ways.”

Jaden’s eyes darted around, assessing his situation. All limbs were locked down, and a strap lay across his forehead. He was immobile.

“Focus on me,” Madrid said, snapping his fingers.

Jaden looked at him, his breathing deep, constant.

“You are full of surprises,” Madrid said, looking into those gray eyes, probably for the last time. “Seth was your best secret. I should have seen him coming. You did well to hide him from me: your hidden ace.”

Jaden didn’t respond. He stared straight ahead as if Madrid wasn’t there.

“I must say, I never expected you to become so attached to a woman. You know,” he said, pacing around the chair, checking the tightness of the restraints, “most people go their whole lives not knowing what true love feels like. But you must know, to give your life for her safety and well being. That’s a special bond. And how ironic, that of all the people in the world, you find Dalton’s daughter, his only child.

“Now that I know how you feel about her, I can and will use her if needed.” He watched Jaden for a reaction, saw a vein throbbing in his temple.

“If you don’t keep your word, if you’re feeling rebellious and somehow chew your way out of your chains, Archcroft will grab her, and I will force you to watch as we carve out her pretty blue eyes, saw her tongue out of that witty mouth,” he growled, Jaden glaring at him, his eyes wet, “cut off her ears. Every time you disobey an order, or fail, I will have her raped and pillaged. What I did to you will pale in comparison to the agony I will subject her to. And I will make you watch from wherever you are. Do I make myself clear?”

The tight manacles rattled as Jaden shook with restrained rage. Like Libby in a room not far from him, his lower lip trembled and his teeth chattered. How similar they both were.

“Answer me,” Madrid commanded.

“Yes,” he said, and his voice broke. His chest rose with heaves. Sam put a mask over Jaden’s nose, pumping gas into him to force him to relax.

“Good. I’d hate to be unclear.” Madrid examined his watch. “After an hour cycle, drug him and put him away. I have to go. Big day tomorrow.”

Sam made a note to his clipboard and nodded. As Jaden’s breathing eased back to normal and his eyelids grew heavy, Sam powered on the dream arc, turning the knob gradually and watching Jaden’s eyes close and flicker again.

Libby couldn’t sleep. She didn’t want to. Every time she closed her eyes she saw Jaden, his face so serene when he said goodbye to her, so desperate when he argued with Seth, screaming that he loved her. She hadn’t gotten the chance to say anything to him, and now she never would. What sorts of things would Archcroft do with him now, she wondered.

He was so alone, and she alone without him. Laying there, all she could think about was his face, and how badly she wanted to hold him, to have him hold her, to be together. Abducted, tortured, held captive, and escaped and living alone, he had trusted her, given her his life for safekeeping and she gambled it, goaded him to foolish bravery. Because he wanted to make her happy. Because he loved her.

No more tears could be shed, she was dried out. A sickening mixture of guilt, indignation, and complete despair and hopelessness tossed in her stomach and seeped into her pores. She reeked of it.

The door to her cell opened, lifting into the ceiling. A tall, burly man with blonde hair and hound dog eyes came inside and approached her with urgency.

Libby sat up.

“We have to go,” he whispered, eyeing a security camera in the corner. “We don’t have much time.”

Libby craned her neck to the camera, which had before blinked red but now did not. “Who are you?”

“My name is Alan, I’m here to help you and Jaden escape. But we have to hurry. We have a ten minute window of surveillance blackout.”

Alan took her hands but Libby pulled them out of his grip. “Why should I trust you? This could be a trap, another way to trick Jaden.”

He shook his head. “No, I swear. I helped Jaden escape from the first lab twelve years ago. I gave him the access codes, but it’s not going to be that easy this time. Please, we have to leave. He won’t go without you.”

What else did she have to lose? She was already trapped, as was Jaden. What—were they going to be more trapped?

Libby nodded and followed Alan into a hallway.

“This facility is the newest, designed like a maze. Jaden’s at the center,” Alan explained in a whisper as they jogged along. “Everyone who works here was told to memorize the layout. There are no maps. It’s a full square mile in size,” Alan said, taking her hand and running faster. “There is one true exit, and several false exits. Going into a false exit triggers an alarm in addition to shutting down the entire facility.” Alan glanced at his watch, then ducked down a branching hallway. They came to a door and Alan typed in a numeric code. The door slid open.

Jaden was not inside. This was a supply room.

“All the facilities have a room like this. Medical supplies, weapons to protect the place. Everyone has orders to shoot anyone who comes in, even the staff and subjects if it comes down to it, at least that’s protocol.”

Libby stared at him in horror. Alan was a little off. She wasn’t sure she could trust him.

“We’re of the same mind.”

“When are we getting Jaden?” she asked. She didn’t bother correcting his assumptions.

“Soon. We’re here to get a shot of epinephrine. They’ve got him pumped full of drugs, I’m sure of it. We need him awake and alert to get out of here. Feel free to grab anything useful,” he added.

Libby eyed a pair of 9mm pistols. She took them, checked the magazines, loaded both weapons, and strapped them to her waist with the available holsters, taking two extra magazines.

“You sure about that?” Alan asked, standing at the door, a vial and syringe in his hand.

“Hell yes,” Libby said. “Five year member of the NRA.”

They left the supply room, Alan checking the corners, listening. Libby had a gun drawn. Anyone willing to do that to a human being wasn’t human themselves. She’d shoot if she needed to. If only she had a sound suppressor.

They sprinted through more hallways. Libby was already lost. All she could do was trust that Alan was not leading her into a trap. She would know soon enough if he was trustworthy, based on Jaden’s reaction to him. If he really had helped Jaden escape, she wondered how he’d managed to get rehired into a new facility.

Finally they stopped, but Libby didn’t understand why. There was nothing here but a wall. Then a panel slid away and revealed a touch screen and numeric keypad.

“Here’s where it gets tricky,” Alan said. “We have to manually override it.”

“What?” Libby asked, putting her back to the wall and scanning the hallways, waiting for an ambush. “Manual override?”

“It’s for emergencies. The only people allowed in are Madrid and Hull. The manufacturer built in a manual override code to open the door, say for a fire or bombing, something like that, even though we’re supposedly bomb and fire proof.” He fished in his pockets for a hand-held computer.

“What’s that?” Libby asked.

“The override changes hourly, this is the device we plug in to open the door.”

Libby noticed that, despite all this high tech wizardry to keep the door closed, there was no one outside the door to guard it.

“Where are the guards?” she asked.

Alan laughed. “Yeah, none of them are anywhere near him. Madrid pulled them all back and placed them outside. Archcroft is feeling pretty secure now they’ve got you. Jaden won’t do anything to cross them if he thinks you’re in danger.”

Libby’s stomach turned over, the guilt marinating her insides. Of course, it was because of her that Jaden was trapped inside.

Tongue between his teeth, Alan plugged the connector from his device into the port of the numeric keypad, then tapped something on the device’s screen.

The panel beeped, and different numbers and characters appeared on the screen in bright orange. Libby came closer to watch as the device cycled through different combinations, finding the right one and locking it in. Eight characters and numbers scrolled across the touch screen then MANUAL OVERRIDE ACCEPTED.

The door disappeared into the ceiling, revealing a second door, which slid into the ground. But instead of seeing Jaden when they ran inside, they were confronted with a wall.

“Shit!” Libby said.

“No, no, that’s okay, we just got through the outer wall.”

“How many walls are there?” Libby whined, dancing on her toes, nervous and anxious to get out of here. The longer they took to break Jaden out, the greater the chance of them getting caught. She hopped up and down as Alan put a recorder to the speaker.

“Joseph Madrid,” came the voice.

VOICE PATTERN ACCEPTED.

Like the outer doors, these too slid into the ceiling, the second fell through the floor. Libby rushed inside while Alan put the tape recorder in a pocket.

On his side, hands and feet chained behind him, Jaden lay unconscious on the floor, a puddle of drool under his mouth. Libby dropped to the floor, picked up his head and tilted his face toward her.

“Jaden?” she asked, and realized she’d been wrong about being dried of tears. They came freely as she called for him. “Jaden, wake up,” she cried, running her fingers through his short hair.

“No, we don’t want him up yet,” Alan said, kneeling down on his other side. “We need to get him out of all this first.”

Libby rubbed Jaden’s arm as Alan tried unlocking the chains, trying to pull herself together, as a crying Libby was not a helpful one. She wiped at her eyes and sniffled, then focused on Alan.

“How can I help?” she asked.

“You can’t,” Alan said, “they’re padlocked. They’ve got a tiny mechanism inside all this steel, in the hopes it’s too deep inside for him to figure out how to work it. I have the combinations, I just don’t know which go where.”

She came around to help, grabbed a heavy lock and turned it over to the combination dial. “Give me a combination.”

Alan read one off to her. It didn’t work. He read off another, and it clicked open. She pulled the chain out. Alan got the remaining two locks undone, and they removed the chains binding him. Alan had a key for the shackles, and soon those too were gone.

“Now comes the hard part,” Alan said, turning Jaden onto his back.

“What?” Libby asked.

“We stab him in the leg with epinephrine,” he said, filling a long, thick syringe with green liquid. “It’s going to be hard to watch.”

“What about this?” Libby said, touching the collar.

He shook his head. “It’s welded. It ain’t coming off. That’s what was so impressive when he busted it off earlier. But that wasn’t Jaden doing that.”

“Seth,” Libby said. Seth was stronger, no inhibitions. She wondered where Seth was now, if he would come back, and if Jaden would allow it. She even wondered who Seth was, how long he’d been a part of Jaden, and how he’d gained control.