Rebel Heart (15 page)

He must know how she felt about him. That she abhorred him. Yet he acted so very sure of himself.

Oh, Lord...

He had something planned, and that thought filled her with dread

The Phantom

"Little rebel."

The Phantom was sitting in his glider staring at a small box of flash pins. It had taken infinite patience and practiced skill to rescue one Victoria DeMontville from complete ruin. He had not wanted to show his hand so soon, but he could see no other way.

"What the hell did she think she was doing?" Cameron muttered. Yet he knew, in truth, he had to admit that Tori had woven deceit and intrigue around herself, and she'd had no other choice. He didn't have to see what the pins contained to know they held a wealth of damning information on them.

But too much time had passed. After Drake had given him the letter from Jonathan, he'd done some investigating on his own. That had taken valuable time. Then he'd seen to some personal matters.

Sheridan and Morray must have heard the same rumors as Drake, and they had beaten him to Tower City. He shouldn't have tarried at Reding, shouldn't have wasted precious time on a few simple details he could have seen to later.

The Phantom sighed deeply. "Now what?"

He set the box on the seat next to him, staring into the distance for several long seconds, his mind racing, plotting. Slowly the glider lifted from the ground, air borne, hovering a few feet off the earth then it shot skyward.

He landed on a grassy knoll near his cabin then walked the short distance to his second home. Sliding a flash pin into his computer, he turned on the monitor intent on seeing just what he'd discovered.

Research on genetic surgery--pros and cons--what went wrong years ago when the process was first discovered.

The chemical make up of the signe virus vaccine Tori was working on, incomplete but almost finished. And the little white flower she had pleaded so hard to keep on that day two years ago when he had encountered her in the forest. Jonathan had given it to her when his gut told him no.

Key words to unblock the computers in their lab and so much more.

Pouring himself a glass of water, he drank deeply. He really didn't no how to proceed with this. Quickly, he told himself and carefully, but so far nothing had gone as he planned.

He would need to call on Jonathan. Perhaps between the two of them they could come up with a viable plan. Marriage to Tori would have to be accomplished as soon as possible.

And how would that go? He had not planned on marriage any time soon. He had never been in love. What would that emotion feel like? Could he learn to love Victoria DeMontville?

She was beautiful, cunning, intriguing, courageous and she was very willful. She had always had her own way. She had managed to come and go as she pleased while she was living at the nunnery. He laughed. Banishment, hardly. When Tori made up the rules as she went.

He had promised. But he had never thought the boon would mean marriage. Perhaps the advisor was even more cunning than Tori. Had DeMontville known at the time what he meant to ask?

He could not have known he would be assassinated at the hands of the crime syndicates he fought so hard to abolish. By Quentin Morray's little band of cutthroats. Thieftakers, just another name for criminals.

He understood why Tori hated them so. And that was another strike against him in Tori's eyes. She believed wholeheartedly that he was a thieftaker.

Victoria

Tori rubbed the itchy spot on her cheek, in the process smearing some of the paint she and Nessa had put there. She was sitting on the corner of Jonathan's desk, swinging one leg. "It was the strangest thing. Just when I thought it was over for me, when I thought I would be hauled unwillingly to Sheridan--silence reigned. I'm not sure what happened. When I reached the top of the cliff, every one had vanished." She hesitated. "And don't try to convince me it was my imagination. It wasn't."

Tori's tone was matter-of-fact and strangely calm as she told Jonathan what had happened. She had managed to quiet her own skepticism by reminding herself that Jonathan was in a tenuous position. He would have to refuse her help if she showed any doubt.

If they hadn't been children together--if they hadn't shared so much in the last ten years--she knew Jonathan would have balked at her participation in this long ago.

But they had an unspoken agreement. Together they had seen what the thieves and the greedy thieftakers could do to corrupt a frightened global village. At first they had thought a vaccine would end the problem, but it passed far beyond a simple vaccine. Now several mutant strains of the signe virus existed, threatened, and one by one, took control, nearly defeating the people, taking their courage from them.

Then Jonathan had stood up to the assembly that had thought isolation and purification would prove the solution to all the cities problems. Jonathan had assumed a power above and beyond that of his station and become a peaceful rebel. Now he tread a precarious path, balancing himself on a high-wire in a dangerous and often volatile political arena. Only a vaccine for each individual strain could absolve Jonathan. And if it wasn't forth coming...

Now as she explained all that happened, her cousin was watching her with a worried look. She had been careful not to tell him about Sheridan's words to Morray, the little speech that not so subtly implied he would install Morray as a department head at her lab or about the computer blocks he'd stumbled across. She had simply told him about Sheridan's arrival with the others then about the way he'd taken over, assuming immediate control.

And about the man who had mysteriously appeared and left without showing himself.

She was watching Jonathan as he paced, his fingers laced behind his back, his brow knitted. Though a number of Jonathan's men were in the building, the small den where she spoke with him was astonishingly quiet except for the natural sounds of the City floating in through the open window, the people going to-and-fro downtown, the constant whistle of the mass transit as it sped by.

The weather was beautiful, sunny, and just warm enough to create thoughts of summer. The air smelled richly of Daphne, lavender, and sunshine, mixed with freshness of furniture polish and musty books. The City provided so many conveniences. Yet the freedom lay outside the gates, in the cool forest and the bubbling springs.

Jonathan had the best of both worlds.

Well, that wasn't exactly true. Although he did come and go, he was still beset by the laws and the ever-increasing restrictions, covenants that made it difficult even for the representatives to travel between the cities. It was like pulling teeth to get the necessary papers.

Jonathan had been so quiet as he paced, but suddenly he stopped and turned around, frowning at her.

"Tell me about him again," he demanded.

She frowned back, shaking her head. "Who? Sheridan? Morray? Hammond--"

"The Phantom, Tori! The Phantom!" Jonathan said and groaned with frustration.

Tori, clenching the glass of juice she held in a death grip, said, "Jonathan, if you would just clarify what you want to know."

"Him. The Phantom."

"I didn't see...him. The Phantom. The entire affair took place in a matter of minutes. As for this cloaked hero, he left. Didn't say a word or wait for a thank you."

"You didn't see the man who rescued you?"

"I did not."

"Was he dressed in black?"

"Jonathan! Haven't you listened to a word I've said? He had the most terrifying yell just before he attacked Morray's men. It was so fast. Then I waited for everyone to leave."

"You're sure he left."

"What? Of course I'm sure." But she wasn't. Why on earth would he protect her that way then leave?

Jonathan smiled suddenly, looking out the window. Then he turned back to Tori and grabbed her by the shoulders, pulling her close.

"He received my message!"

"And you're crazy," she accused him, brushing a lock of hair off his forehead and trying to understand his sudden merriment. "Jonathan..."

She was suddenly alone, and he was staring out the window again. "The Phantom. He came."

"The Phantom..." Tori repeated. So the man wasn't just a figment of her imagination. The stories about him were all true.

Wonderful tales surrounded him. He was a man who infiltrated kidnapping rings, stopping the sale of viruses here and there throughout the global village, demanding that Outsiders, and physicians, and the City Dwellers alike band together to fight a common enemy, the fraudulent thieftakers.

The gossip had begun. Then in the last two years, the rumors had faded to nothing. Many thought The Phantom had died in the last epidemic, or that perhaps he had been ancient and passed away because of his great age. Whatever--if he had ever existed, he had vanished.

Now Jonathan acted sure that he had returned.

"So the stories are real," she said.

"You tell me."

"I saw nothing...perhaps it is only wishful thinking."

"And perhaps he's here," Jonathan insisted happily. He was staring at her now, grinning. "A man and yet a ghost, there but not there, fading into the forest."

It was her turn to sigh with frustration. "You're being just as elusive."

"I have need to be."

Tori stubbornly shook her head. "I never really believed in The Phantom. You see, I believe in things that are tangible, that can be explained because they are real."

"Tori, he probably didn't want you to see him."

"Then he must have something to hide."

"You said he saved you."

Tori ran her fingers through her hair then turned to look out the window for a moment. "I did. But he might have had some other reason."

"Quit fabricating scenarios," Jonathan said. "Maybe it isn't him. Perhaps it was someone else," he finished, moving once again toward her. "Thanks for the info, Tori. I take it no one saw you come here."

"I didn't think anyone followed me to the cliff," she assured him halfheartedly.

"What of Janellen?" he asked. "What possible reason for her appearance with the men?"

A tingle of annoyance swept through her. She didn't know whether to tell Jonathan about her wild imaginings or not. He could not risk appearing suddenly at the laboratory.

But then she wasn't afraid of being in the laboratory.

"Victoria?" Jonathan said anxiously.

"The sweet avenging angel of mercy...? I don't have a clue. Perhaps she was brought along for the sole purpose of hounding me. Maybe not. She's also an excellent snoop."

"What if Janellen is ferreting out the secret passage, even now?"

"Then Nessa will find a way to stop her. She has changed, Jonathan. She is no longer so innocent and trusting."

"Indeed, then you can't bend her to your will?" Jonathan's good humor swiftly vanished, a scowl appearing on his handsome face once again. "This bothers me, this scene you've drawn here. I don't like it that Sheridan arrived with Morray, Janellen, and Hammond."

"Hammond even has a slight sense of humor--" Tori began.

"Don't trust him," Jonathan reminded her sharply. "After all, Hammond came here with Morray, his expertise being used to undermine you, if I am not mistaken."

"He was absorbed in the terminals when I left," Tori agreed.

"Sheridan--and two powerful scientists, representative of the City, and a sister," he murmured. Because of the devastation of the signe virus, sisters could now perform the marriage ceremony. She knew he had come to her own conclusions. "Tori, there is more going on here than you could possibly guess."

She nodded, trying not to appear frightened. She wiped the palms of her hands on her pant legs. "Oh, I think I've guessed it all."

"Sheridan wants access to your files and control of your laboratory. He wants to know what you discovered that has caused the immense cover-up he thinks you instigated."

"I didn't instigate anything. Something occurred at level three clearance and neither Nessa or myself can figure out what happened," she informed him.

"But you still have tremendous backing within the City. Tori, there are men in the assembly who admired your father immensely. Sheridan wants these men behind him. He plans to use this new scare to take over the council. If he holds your laboratory, he will have an excellent place from which to parley or from which to sort out the weak from the strong. Tori, he intends to force you into marriage."