Killer Dreams (5 page)

“But he didn’t get the chance. Garwood ruined it for him.”

“He’ll get what he wants. I’ve never met anyone as determined as Royd. He’s just put it on hold for a while.”

She remembered the total concentration and focus Royd had shown as he’d watched her face at the kitchen table. Yes, she could believe he’d be completely relentless about any goal he set himself. She turned away. “How long do you think it will be before he gets back?”

“An hour or so.”

“And then what?”

“We’ll have to make plans.”

“I have a plan and it happens next Tuesday.”

“If Sanborne sent his pet tarantula to sting you, there’s a good chance you may not get your opportunity. His routine will be altered.”

He was right. She had thought of that possibility but she hadn’t wanted to admit it to herself. “We’ll have to see, won’t we?”

“I don’t believe Royd is going to be willing to wait around for you to get your chance. You’ll have to accept that there’s a new element to deal with.”

“I don’t have to accept anything.” She sat down on the couch. “Go away, Jock. This is becoming more of a horror story every minute. Let me handle it.”

“Would you like a drink?” He sat down in the chair opposite her. “We may have a long time to wait.”

“It’s going to seem like forever.” She leaned back and closed her eyes. She couldn’t forget the sight of those two nooses Royd had thrown down. One for her. One for Michael. She’d worried about the consequences to Michael if she killed Sanborne, but she’d never believed his life would be in danger. She’d thought she’d be the only target. Why would anyone kill a child? True, her father had tried to kill Michael, but that had been only a ploy to make everyone believe he’d gone insane. Yet here was another threat to Michael. Damn Sanborne. “And I don’t want a drink. I want this night to be over.”

“Has Caprio checked in yet?” Boch asked when Sanborne picked up the phone.

“Not yet.”

Boch muttered a curse. “I told you that you had to be careful with him. He was a sniveling two-bit hit man when we took him on, and REM-4 didn’t make him any smarter.”

“But it made him loyal to me. I told him exactly what to do and he’ll do it. The experiments demonstrated that intelligence doesn’t always make the best subjects. Look at Royd.”

“He was the best subject we ever had.”

“Until he shrugged off the training as if it didn’t exist.”

“It wasn’t that easy for him. But we’re not talking about Royd. I want to know why Caprio hasn’t contacted you. Send someone else to Sophie Dunston’s house.”

“And chance them being seen when the bodies are discovered? No way. We’ll wait.”

“You’ll wait. I’m not that patient. I have my own men and they’re not zombies like your choices. I’ll give you another two hours to take care of her.”

“Why are you frothing at the mouth? She doesn’t even know about you. She’s after me.”

“And how did she know that REM-4 was at this facility? If she knew about that, then she might have found out about our connection. You should have gotten rid of her when she set up shop on our doorstep.”

“There was a possibility she could have helped us if I could have gotten my hands on her. REM-4 isn’t perfect and she jerked the follow-up research she was working on that could have increased the effect tenfold and made it safer.”

“Nothing is perfect. We didn’t need her. She wasn’t the only fish in the sea. What we’ve got now is good enough.”

“Your clients might not think so. Three out of ten end up dead or insane.”

“That’s an acceptable casualty percentage. I can’t afford to have her snooping around. In three months my retirement goes into effect and I have to be clean if I’m going to keep my contacts.”

Boch’s precious connections, Sanborne thought impatiently. But those connections would prove important to both of them. The bastard knew every crooked military man in the service and he had overseas links that would be invaluable once REM-4 was set up. He struggled to regain his temper. “You’ll keep them. For God’s sake, Caprio’s only an hour late checking in. Why are you so nervous?”

Boch was silent a moment. “My informant with the CIA phoned me and told me that Royd’s left Colombia.”

“What?”

“It could mean nothing. He could have taken on another job. He’s in demand.”

“You told me you were going to send someone to take him down.”

“I did. Three times. He’s good. We made him good.”

“And you’re a fool.”

“You can’t talk to me that way. I won’t have it.”

I’ve hurt the idiot’s giant ego, Sanborne thought bitterly. “He was out of the country and it was your best chance to bring him down.”

“I kept an eye on him.”

“So well that you let him slip away. Jesus, I remember him at Garwood. Good? He was a damn expert. No one was better than Royd.”

“I’ll find him.” Boch paused. “But don’t you ever talk to me like that again.”

Sanborne hesitated. Shit. Pacify the son of a bitch. “Sorry.”

“And mind your own concerns. Sophie Dunston may only be a woman but she has to be eliminated. I want to be free and clear before we set up on the island.” He hung up.

Did Boch believe he didn’t know that? Sophie Dunston had been a thorn in his side since the moment she had found out he was continuing the Amsterdam experiments. He had been able to block her but she wasn’t going to give up. She just kept on searching, digging, trying to find someone who would listen.

But he could be worrying about a problem that had already been solved.

If Caprio had strung up the bitch.

“Taken care of?” Jock asked Royd when he came into the house an hour and thirty minutes later.

Royd nodded. “There was more traffic than I thought at this hour.” He glanced at Sophie. “You look like shit. Go to bed. We’ll talk later.”

She shook her head. “You weren’t seen?”

“I wasn’t seen.” He turned to Jock. “You can leave. I’ll stay here and make sure she’s all right.”

“My job.”

“Oh, for goodness sake, I’ll watch out for myself,” she said in exasperation. “Both of you get—”

Michael.

“Okay, one of you stays. Flip a coin.” She turned and headed for the door. “I’ll be in the guest room down the hall. I don’t want to go back in my bedroom yet.”

“I’ll set up the monitor while you’re in the shower,” Jock said. “And I’ll listen for the alarm until you’re out of the bathroom.”

“Thanks.” She shivered as she went down the hall past her bedroom. A haven of comfort and security had been transformed into something ugly in the space of a few violent moments. She didn’t know if she’d ever be able to go in that room again with any degree of comfort.

Don’t think about it. Go to sleep. Maybe then she’d be able to cope when she woke.

She didn’t go to sleep for another hour. She lay there thinking, trying to get a plan together. She could hear nothing from the other room. Maybe they had both left the house. No, Jock would not have left her….

5

W
ake up.”

Michael!

She jerked upright in the bed and swung her feet to the floor. She was half out of the bed when she was pushed back on the pillows.

“Easy. Nothing’s wrong. I just had to wake you,” Royd said. “I gave you a few hours’ sleep but your son’s due to wake up soon and I didn’t want to scare him by having him face a stranger in the house. You wouldn’t want that.”

“Oh, no,” she said vaguely as she brushed the hair back from her face. She glanced at the clock on the nightstand. Five-thirty
A
.
M
.

“No, I wouldn’t want Michael to—” She shook her head to rid it of sleep. “But Michael doesn’t get up until seven.”

“Good.” He poured a cup of coffee from the carafe on the nightstand and handed it to her. “Then we have a little time to talk.” He sat down in the armchair near the bed. “Get back in bed and cover up. It’s chilly in here.”

“I’m not cold.” It was a lie. The jersey nightshirt she was wearing offered little protection and the fact that she was emotionally and physically drained had probably affected her body temperature. “I gather you won the toss.”

“Jock would never depend on chance. Actually, he wanted to stay with me. But I persuaded him that I was going to talk to you anyway and I needed some time alone.” He grimaced. “Of course I had to assure him I wouldn’t lose my temper and cut your throat.”

“I can see how he’d worry about that,” she said dryly. “Jock and I have become good friends and you’re a very angry man.” She shrugged wearily. “And that anger is aimed at me. I can understand that.”

“Excellent. Then we’re on our way to an understanding.” He leaned forward, grabbed a blanket, and threw it over her bare legs. “For God’s sake, cover up. You’ve got goose bumps.”

“I hoped our discussion wouldn’t last long. What is there to say? I hurt you. I’m sorry. If there were anything I could do to make it up to you, I’d do it.” Her lips lifted in a sardonic smile. “But I can’t let you kill me. I have to think of Michael.”

He didn’t speak for a moment, studying her face. “My God. And, if there wasn’t Michael, I believe you’d let me do it.”

“Don’t be ridiculous.” She looked away from him. “But I did a terrible thing. There has to be some form of restitution I can make.”

“If you’re telling me the truth, you didn’t know what Sanborne was doing with REM-4.”

“Did that stop you and Jock and all those other men from being twisted and hurt? Did it save my mother and father? It was my fault.” She met his eyes. “And unless I stop Sanborne, it’s going to keep on happening. I can’t stand that, Royd.”

“Killing Sanborne won’t get rid of REM-4. If that would have done it, I’d have targeted Sanborne as soon as I escaped Garwood. There’s still Boch. Kill one and the other one would snatch the REM-4 disk and go undercover. I have to get rid of both and the facility and every record and formula they used at Garwood. I’m going to wipe REM-4 from the face of the earth. No one is ever going to be able to do what they did to me again.” His tone roughened. “And you’re not going to ruin my chances of doing that by killing Sanborne. I want it all.”

There was such passion and intensity in his voice that it stunned her for an instant. “And what would you do if I did?”

“You don’t want to know. You think I’m angry now?”

Yes, she could imagine the lethal rage that would burn through Royd if he was thwarted. “You may have to deal with it.”

“The hell I will. If you want Sanborne, you’ll have to come over to my camp.”

She stiffened. “I don’t want to—”

“Do you think I want you? But I may need you. When I came here, I thought there was a chance that I could squeeze information out of you that would make it easier for me to take down Sanborne and Boch. You were listed on the Amsterdam experiment list. I thought you were working with them.”

“I’m sorry to disappoint you.”

“You did disappoint me. I didn’t want to have to take out Caprio. I wanted to zero in on you.”

She smiled without mirth. “And instead you were forced to save my worthless life.”

“It’s not worthless to me. I won’t let it be worthless.”

“I was joking. My life has meaning. I’m a doctor and I help people. I’m a mother and I believe I’m a good one. And I don’t give a damn about whether I’m of worth to you.”

“Yes, you do. You feel you owe me something and I’ll use that to the max.” He leaned back in the chair and stretched his legs out before him. “So get used to the idea that you’re not killing Sanborne until I give you the go-ahead. Now relax and let me talk.”

“Stop giving me orders. I’ll do what I wish, Royd.”

“And do you wish REM-4 to survive Sanborne? It will, you know. Mind control is just too tempting not to attract the scumbags of the world. The military of half a dozen countries have been experimenting with it for decades. But everyone struck out until you came along. You handed the answer to Sanborne on a silver platter. You have to help me take it back.”

“I don’t have to do anything I don’t want to do.”

“But you want to do this. You may not like me taking over the action, but this is something you want to do. Jock told me you’d have gone into the facility and destroyed every bit of your research connected with REM-4 if you could have done it. Instead, you opted to kill the snake by chopping off the head. You can’t kill REM-4 by cutting off Sanborne’s head. You have to blow the entire beast to kingdom come.”

She drew a deep breath and tried to rid herself of the resentment his bluntness had stirred. He was right. She hadn’t thought past getting rid of Sanborne when she’d found she couldn’t get into the facility. Hell, she hadn’t even known about Boch.

His gaze was narrowed on her face. “If you regret what you did, then do something about it. Get rid of REM-4, dammit.”

She didn’t speak for a moment. “How?”

“Good, a breakthrough.” He leaned forward. “My man at the facility, Nate Kelly, says that during the last six months Sanborne seemed to be trying to arrange a complete break from everything and everyone connected with the REM-4 facility here. A total cleanup. He said that there were rumors of a move out even before they started shipping out equipment and records. Sanborne’s either fired or transferred the twelve key personnel who had ever been connected with the experiments. Kelly tried to contact two of them whose records he managed to locate. One of them had been killed in an automobile accident, the other had gone on an extended vacation and wasn’t expected back anytime soon.”

“More murders?”

“Probably. As I said, a total cleanup. I imagine we’ll find—What’s wrong?”

She moistened her lips. “My friend Cindy, who gave me the information about Garwood.”

“Have you heard from her lately?”

She shook her head. “She resigned from Sanborne’s over a year ago. But she was involved in the early experiments.”

“She might be safe. Call her.” He paused. “And you would have been very close to the top of the list to be eliminated.”

“Sanborne hasn’t made a move on me since right after I got out of the hospital. He called me just once and offered me big money to come back to work for him. I told him to go to hell. But I’ve been very vocal to the FBI and several congressmen. It didn’t do me any good, but Sanborne wouldn’t want me to die suspiciously.”

“He made a move last night.”

It was true. “I was seen at the facility. He might have decided he had to get rid of me in self-defense.”

“You’ll pardon me if I doubt that he’d be intimidated enough by you to spur him to move this quickly. I believe he’d probably set you up already and just moved the action up a little.”

“Why is he getting rid of all these people now?”

“I can make a guess. He’s going international.”

“What?”

“He thinks he’s got REM-4 down to the point that they can start taking on foreign customers. But they need a base that’s not on U.S. soil where they can operate freely and their customers won’t come under scrutiny.”

“He’s going overseas?”

“Kelly says that’s his take on it. Overseas or an island close to the mainland. The foreign market is where the real money would be.” He grimaced. “And that’s why he wants to make sure his boat isn’t rocked. He wants any story you told the FBI to fade away into the sunset, and you with it.”

“A noose isn’t likely to make me fade away.” Of course it would, she realized. If everyone thought it was suicide. “Where overseas?”

Royd shook his head. “Kelly wasn’t able to find out. He does know that the trucks leaving the facility are going to a dock outside Baltimore.”

Her hand clenched on the sheet. “We have to find out.”

“I have every intention of finding out. That’s why I’m here.”

“You thought I might know.”

“I was hoping. But it’s not a wasted trip. I can still use you.”

“I beg your pardon.”

“Isn’t that what you want? It’s clear you’re eaten up with guilt and looking for some way to make things right. Well, if I can use you, then you’ll have what you want.”

“I don’t like that word.”

“I’m calling it what it is. I’ll use you however I can. In ways that Jock would probably disapprove of.”

“What ways?”

“Sanborne turned his dogs loose on you for a reason.”

“You told me that he wanted to make sure that no one in the FBI paid attention to me.”

“He also didn’t want his foreign customers paying attention to you. You’re the only one who knows the basic formula for REM-4. He wouldn’t have an exclusive product if you were around.”

Her eyes widened. “He couldn’t believe I’d actually sell it. I’ve been fighting him for years.”

“Sanborne and Boch believe in the ultimate power of corruption. Garwood was based on that premise. They’d assume there was a chance you’d succumb in the end. You’re too big a threat to assume anything else. Also, you said you were working on an enhancement that could make REM-4 more effective. They’d love to get their hands on it. That means you’re going to be a prime target from now on.”

“So?”

“That’s good for me,” he said simply. “If they want you bad enough, then they’ll go after you. They could make mistakes. They might send someone who has information I can use.” He looked her directly in the eye. “Or I can use you as bait.”

“You think I’d let you?”

“Yes, I’m beginning to know you. You’d let me do almost anything to you if it meant making up for what you deem past sins.”

“That would be foolish.”

“You’d do it. Wouldn’t you?”

She didn’t answer. “Why do you think that?”

“Because we’re more alike than you’d believe. I’d be willing to be crucified if I could turn back the clock.”

The words were said quietly but that passion was there again in his face. “Why?”

“I had a choice and made the wrong one. You did the same thing.”

She wanted to ask him what choice but she didn’t want any confidences that would bring closer intimacy. It would be like being intimate with a tiger.

It wasn’t the first time that similarity had occurred to her, she remembered. Sitting there, big, powerful, with that tension only slightly disguised, it hit home again.

Tiger, tiger, burning bright…

She looked away from him. “I wouldn’t be that self-sacrificing.”

“The hell you wouldn’t. REM-4 has been monopolizing your life for years.” He held up his hand as she started to speak. “Come with me and see REM-4 die or go after Sanborne by yourself and risk REM-4 going on. I don’t care.”

“Don’t give me that bullshit. You do care.”

He smiled faintly. “Okay, I do care. You could make it easier for me. Maybe.”

She was silent a moment. “What does Jock say about this?”

“Jock is being pulled in a couple directions. He needs to return to Scotland. He knows I’m capable of taking care of you. He knows I might not do it if it suits me. He’s right on both counts.”

No, Royd would do exactly as he pleased. But the path that was his goal was the one she’d wanted to follow desperately for years. “I’ll think about it.”

“Not long. I want you out of here. I figure we’ve probably got a few more hours before Sanborne sends someone else to check on Caprio. Maybe he already knows Caprio slipped up and is giving his assignment to someone else.”

“I have a career. I can’t just vanish.”

“Call in sick. You’re a doctor. Reel off some convincing symptoms.”

“I don’t lie.”

“I do. When it saves my ass.” He got to his feet. “I’ll take a look around outside and check it out. Keep your phone handy.” He gave her a card with his cell phone number. “I’ll stay within shouting distance. If I don’t hear from you, I’ll come back in an hour. You can introduce me to your son so he’ll be familiar with me. I wouldn’t let him go to school if I were you. It might not be safe.”

A chill went through her. “I’ll consider it. But he wouldn’t understand.”

“You don’t want him to understand. He’s got enough on his plate.” He frowned. “He may be a problem. I’ll have to work something out.”

“You’ll have nothing to do with my son. You’re not going to use
him
.”

He smiled faintly. “You see, you’re already accepting that you’re going to let me use you. The supreme power of guilt.”

She gazed at him in wonder. “I believe you may be a terrible, terrible man, Royd.”

“I believe you may be right.” He moved toward the door. “And who would you rather have to rid you of an even more terrible man? You won’t even have to care which one of us bites it.” He glanced over his shoulder. “I’ll start more coffee going. Then I’ll call Jock and get him back here. He’s going to want you to tell him that it’s all right with you for him to go back to MacDuff’s Run.”

“I’ve already told him that.”

“But now you have a more convincing argument.”

“I haven’t made a decision yet, Royd.”

“Then make it. I’m your best bet. I’ll even make you a promise that neither your son nor you will be killed if you do what I say.”

She heard his footsteps in the hall and then the front door closing behind him.

Christ.

She lay back against the pillows, thinking about Royd’s words. Before he’d come on the scene, she’d thought that by killing Sanborne she had a chance of destroying all the misery she’d started. No longer. It was going to be much more complicated and involved than she’d dreamed.