Listen (Muted Trilogy Book 2) (11 page)

This was further compounded, of course, by the fact that she was at the mercy of captors who could change things drastically for the worse whenever it suited them.

Less familiar to her was the feeling that the change could be a good thing. She’d gotten a better room, lunch with Jack and then the others, reprieve from the monotony she’d thought might be worse than all the rest of the aspects of captivity combined. That she was surrounded by people each day from the time she finished her breakfast until after her sessions with Dr. Harris, by which point her head was pounding, meant she was able to value her alone time again.

Having alone time during the day, in the laboratory, was not one of the things she’d come to expect, and she pressed one of the keys on her phone absently, continuing to watch the window and the elbow of the person outside it.

Since the group lunches had started over a week ago, it was as if some unseen timetable had changed. Her day was still scheduled, predictable in many ways, but she’d been paired up with others, not just Katherine and Naomi. She’d had nearly the same experience with Sam as she had with his sister. Her sessions with Marcia had made her regret that she’d not had a chance to get to know the other woman better. Ken’s sessions had proceeded much like the early ones with Naomi; Kendall was still jumpy, unsure, unwilling to break the rules, but not in the same frustrating way as Katherine.

She took advantage of her rare time alone in the lab to study the room. Other than the single door, there were no other exits or entrances, and the door was always guarded. The lab had been one of the first rooms Jemma had been able to rule out as a likely area from which to escape. Since the others had joined them in the cafeteria, they now had at least one guard outside in addition to the standard two inside during lunch, so a lunchtime escape had gotten a bit less likely. Without a lock to pick from inside the rooms, she figured getting away while being escorted through the hallway was likely their best bet, but since they typically staggered their transport times, getting everybody out would be nearly impossible.

If she had to, though, she’d settle for just herself and Jack.

As her thoughts shifted toward Jack, her pressing of the phone key slowed. She could feel him.

“Jack?” she sent, trying not to still completely at the familiar echo; despite the close-up recordings that Josh and sometimes Dr. Harris created on the tablet, she was pretty sure they had at least one camera permanently in this room.

She felt a surprised greeting. “I’m in the hallway. I’m not sure where they’re taking me. We’re already past my usual luxury suite.” Jemma could almost see him wink, and she fought a grin. His lab must be just out of range of hers, then, if he’d passed it and could Talk to her.

“My normal scientist isn’t in here this morning, you’re not being taken to your normal place, and we’re able to Talk when we’re not in the same room. I’m trying not to smile even though I have no clue what’s going on.”

“It’s my pleasure, ma’am,” he sent in return.

“How can a British accent be so
bad
in your own mind?”

“I’m— Wait, I think we’re here.” His mental tone turned serious, and Jemma sat up straight as she saw him and a guard walk past her window.

Her door opened, revealing Jack, who was grinning at her. Jemma smiled back. Before she could stand, Dr. Harris entered behind him and gestured for her to remain where she was. Josh came in behind Dr. Harris, watching the floor as he walked. Dr. Harris stayed in control, indicating that Jack should sit next to Jemma, then gesturing for Josh to attach Jemma to the monitor.

“No Talking without contact after they hook me up,” she sent when she realized what was happening, and he sent a wave of acknowledgment in response.

There wasn’t time for more before Josh, without making eye contact, started attaching the electrical pads to her upper neck, as he did daily. His movements were slow, and he caught her hair twice, having to redo the attachment each time. After the first time, she felt Jack withdraw from their connection, and she berated herself for not having done so earlier. Finally, Josh finished, and he stood behind his normal seat while Dr. Harris got comfortable.

Jemma was torn between watching Jack and avoiding looking at him. It was great to see him, especially since he seemed in good spirits, and it was almost impossible to be in a bad mood when he was happy. Seeing him, though, seeing that spark in his eye and not reaching for their connection to ask what was causing it, it was difficult.

When Dr. Harris finally typed, Jemma jumped and faced the sound.

“Joshua is not allowed to interact with subjects without direct supervision for the foreseeable future. If he should try to approach you alone before I’ve informed you that this order has been revoked,” he continued typing, looking straight at Jemma, “you are not to respond, and you are to alert a guard immediately. Do you understand?”

Jemma nodded. Josh must have been telling the truth, then, during the session with Katherine. She’d wondered, alone in her room, whether he had been. She’d been pretty sure Josh thought he was telling the truth, at least, and she didn’t think they would restrict him like this if he’d been making things up.

Or would they? They’d increased his supervision immediately, but he must have tried something else, something new, for Dr. Harris to be making the new rules explicit now rather than a week ago.

“I’m not sure I understand.” The electronic voice came from Jack’s phone. “Why the rules? What’d he do?”

Dr. Harris frowned. “That’s none of your concern as long as you understand the new rules. You don’t need to understand why they were changed.”

Jemma looked at Jack. With the monitor attached, she couldn’t risk sending anything via their connection, couldn’t explain she’d told him some of what happened, but she
could
make the sign for “okay.” Jack nodded, looking decidedly less happy than he had when he’d entered the room. Jemma wanted to reach for him but decided not to chance it; likely, the rules about contact were the same here as in the cafeteria, at least until they were instructed otherwise. And they shouldn’t have to wait long; why else would he be here?

“We will begin with the standard script, with contact, when I indicate you may touch. If contact is sustained beyond the allowed time frames,” Dr. Harris confirmed, “the session will end, and neither of you will receive lunch today. Further, you will be denied visitation for the rest of the week. The same applies to if we have reason to believe you are deviating from the script intentionally.”

He really didn’t want them Talking when they weren’t supposed to. What was going to happen if he found out they could Talk without contact? He was clearly trying to get her to Talk to somebody, hence the weeks of testing, and yet, it obviously made him nervous, or he’d have tested her with Jack right away; he had to know the best chance at having Jemma succeed in Talking to someone at a distance was by having her Talk to Jack. Maybe he was afraid of exactly how successful they might be.

When Dr. Harris looked at her, waiting, Jemma nodded. Jack did the same, presumably, beside her, and then Dr. Harris gestured for them to begin.

Rather than simply putting his hand on her arm as Jemma had gotten used to, Jack took advantage of the lack of clarification as to type of contact and laced his fingers through Jemma’s. She watched Dr. Harris a moment to see whether he would object, and she could feel Jack’s wariness, too, but after a brief narrowing of his eyes, Dr. Harris seemed to decide he would allow it, and they both relaxed.

“Hi,” sent Jack, running his thumb along hers. “I’m Jack.” His mouth twitched. “It’s nice to see you.” He sent emotion along with his words: humor, frustration and annoyance, affection, exasperation.

In her peripheral vision, Jemma saw Josh stop pouting for the first time that morning, straightening to watch whatever was happening on the monitors. She nodded to show she’d heard him while he typed for the benefit of the others, and she glanced at the monitor.

She’d never seen the activity so high, and it was usually considerably lower on incoming messages than on outgoing ones. Dr. Harris was nodding as he made notations.

When Jemma took her turn, parroting Jack’s words and sending back her own storm of emotion, even Dr. Harris seemed nonplussed. He stopped writing to look at the monitor, and Jemma saw that the activity had flat-lined at its maximum recording capability.

After several seconds, Dr. Harris began typing, though he seemed to be consulting with somebody other than Josh, who hadn’t been given a keyboard for the morning. Josh stood, staring at the readings, and Jemma closed her eyes.

In the silence, she could shut out the other two men. The medical chair was reasonably comfortable, after all, as long as her skin wasn’t sticking to it. Jack’s thumb was still stroking hers rhythmically. Allowed contact, their connection was open, the temptation to send something great. She focused instead on the sensation of skin against skin, of his hand in hers until she was jarred out of her thoughts by Dr. Harris’s electronic voice.

“Cease contact for now.” They let go immediately, and Jemma’s jaw clenched. Dr. Harris turned the monitor toward her and Jack so they could see it more easily, then continued typing. “We’ve not yet tried all combinations, but this is the first time we’ve seen this static on contact. It was too steady to be conversation, so you will not be penalized. We’d like to be able to recreate it in other test samples. Are you consciously aware of it?”

Jemma looked at Jack, who shrugged. If they hadn’t started testing the established pairs, it would make sense that they hadn’t seen a true connection yet. She was pretty sure Ken and Marcia would be able to give them results, and there was no way the twins, as similar as they were to each other, wouldn’t show this same static or whatever it was on the monitor. If the others didn’t have that, though, she still wasn’t sure what it would hurt to explain what she thought, as long as she avoided any mention of Talking without contact in here.

She typed, “My best guess is that it’s our connection. We can feel each other there when we touch, and when we’re not in this place, when we’re not limited by whatever it is you’re doing to us, we can feel it without touching.”

“Could you feel it before the Event?” Jemma and Jack shook their heads. “Do you have that with anybody else?”

“Not in the same way,” typed Jemma. “We could Talk, but I couldn’t feel them when we weren’t actively Talking. I don’t know whether we would have built that eventually. You kidnapped Ken and Marcia before we could find out.”

Dr. Harris frowned. “Let’s continue. Not with contact,” he interrupted when Jack reached for Jemma’s hand once more. “You’ve clearly demonstrated you excel in that area. We’ll do that one more time before we end this morning. Right now, I’d like you to try it without contact. Stick to the script.”

Jack went first, putting on a show of concentrating before typing his lines. Jemma spent the time figuring out how she was going to fool the monitor; if she actually tried, it would work, and she wasn’t ready for them to know about that particular ability just yet. When it was her turn, she looked at Jack and focused her attempt on Josh. As far as the monitor was concerned, she tried her best, putting in considerable effort without much result. For the first time, she was glad this building seemed to force mutual concentration to connect to Jack.

They continued at varied distances for several hours, and as the tests continued, Jemma’s head began throbbing, making it difficult to concentrate. By the time they were finished, Jemma’s headache was one of the worst she’d ever felt. She didn’t hear Dr. Harris tell Jack to take her hand, but she was aware of the contact, of his presence in her mind, the stroke of his skin against hers giving her something to focus on. She felt the pinch of a needle and rolled her head to the side to see Josh withdrawing blood while Jack spoke to her, using a quiet, unspoken voice and scripted words. She could tell Dr. Harris was typing something, but she wasn’t sure what, and she thought that maybe Jack was typing something, too.

“Jemma? Jemma, can you hear me?” Jack’s mental voice came through more clearly than the outside noises, and she thought she heard someone whimper.

“We’re not allowed to Talk,” she sent back, trying to look at him. She felt another pinch, this time in her thigh.

“He was worried. He’s not quite the ass he pretends to be. And you’re not quite yourself right now.” Did Jack have his arms around her? “They gave you something that should help with the pain. Said we could Talk off-script until it kicks in.”

She leaned her head against his shoulder, not quite sure how he’d gotten in the chair with her. “Josh gives me headaches.”

“He’d give me headaches, too. Did he hurt you? Is that why he isn’t able to talk without being supervised?”

“Mentioned at lunch last week, tried to tell me something.” Jemma felt like she was slurring. “Didn’t make sense. Said I’m best and can save everyone.”

“Okay. You rest, Jemma.”

Soft lips against her forehead.

Warm arms.

Darkness.

TWELVE

Overheard

Jemma woke, disoriented, feeling as if she’d had too much to drink. She couldn’t remember, at first, how she’d gotten in her room.