Chapter 10
CHAPTER TEN
“I’m thinking,” Matt answered.
He didn’t have to say more because he knew Elizabeth was tapping into his mental processes.
She went very still when she realized what he had in mind.
“Find the house?” she asked.
“Yeah.”
She pressed her hand to her mouth, her face a study in concentration. “I … don’t know where it is.” Panic bloomed on her features. “Oh Lord, Matt. What if all this has been for nothing?”
He wasn’t going to simply give up. When he held out his arms, she hesitated for a moment, then accepted the offer. He could feel her panic subsiding as she leaned into him.
Is the house in the city?
I don’t think so.
But you saw it?
Yes. I’m pretty sure I snuck up on it.
Let’s go back there.
They both closed their eyes, and he pressed his cheek to hers, flooding power into her the way he had learned to do it. For long moments, he felt her frustration until a picture of a large dwelling formed in her mind.
It was a Victorian mansion with three floors, a wide front porch, and a newer wing on either side. It was painted a tasteful beige with darker trim. On one side, he saw a paved lot where several high-end cars were parked. A brick path led from the lot to the front door. And the grounds around the house were nicely landscaped with azaleas, dogwoods, redbuds, and other typical local greenery.
That’s it?
Yes. You’d never dream it was anything but a pretty rural residence. She gave a harsh laugh. Or maybe an upscale bed and breakfast.
How did you get close?
I waited until it was dark, then parked down the road and came through the woods.
You didn’t get inside?
No. But I looked in the widows.
She stayed with the scene, and he got more than visual effects. From inside the house, he heard soft jazz drifting toward him. It was accompanied by another picture that came to him of young pretty women wearing dressing gowns. Some were standing, others sitting in a luxuriously furnished room where men in sports shirts and slacks relaxed with drinks.
One of the men stood and held out his hand to a blonde woman. She swallowed hard, then got up and walked ahead of him out of the room. He saw the man caress her bottom through her gown, saw her wince, andthen caught a glimpse of the couple climbing the stairs before they disappeared from sight.
He picked up the disgust in Elizabeth’s memory as she backed away from the house and hurried across the neatly trimmed lawn. Turning around, she looked at the building again and froze. For the first time, she spotted a security camera she hadn’t seen earlier. With a little gasp, she ran for the woods at the side of the house. But they both knew it was already too late.
“They must have seen you,” he said aloud.
“Yes. I guess I wasn’t thinking about cameras when I sneaked onto the grounds. I only wanted to make sure that Sabrina was telling the truth.”
She made a soft moaning sound. “Oh, Lord, and I thought I was being so careful.”
“Go back to the scene,” he said.
He felt her resistance. She didn’t want to go anywhere near the upscale prison where young women were being forced to service men who were willing to pay for the pleasure, but she did it because they were trying to save the women. Her head lay on his shoulder, but her mind flashed back to the Victorian, and he saw it from her point of view as she ran frantically back into the darkened woods. It took a few moments for her eyes to adjust to the gloom, and she ran into a patch of brambles that tore at her clothing.
She wrenched herself away and veered to the left as she kept running, madly trying to put distance between herself and the house. Now, he heard the sounds of heavy footsteps crashing through the underbrush after her.
“There she is.”
“Don’t let her get away.”
Fear leaped inside her and kept her running as fast as she could. When a root snagged her foot, she almost crashed to the ground but caught herself against a tree and kept moving. She was breathing hard when she reached her car, opened the door with the remote, and threw herself inside.
She gunned the engine, sped out of the woods, skidding as she turned right, then hurtled down the road, but they both knew she hadn’t been in the clear.
When he felt her trembling, he soothed her.
“It’s okay.
“I made a mess of that.”
“No. You got a look at the bordello—at what was going on in there.”
Silently, he asked her to go back to the vision once again. She tossed her head from side to side, hating to revisit the scene.
I think we can get theinformation we need.
How?
Try it again. Get back into the car—when you were speeding away just now.
She put herself back into the vehicle. When she was sure she’d lost the pursuers, she slowed. Coming to a street sign, she saw she was on Sparks Road, and the cross street was York Road.
He squeezed her shoulder. “I think you’ve got it.”
“Yes.”
When she caught what was in his mind, she went rigid.
“No.”
“Yes. We have to go back and ensure it’s still business as usual out there.”
“Then what?”
“I think I know what will work, but we have to make sure about the place.”
He held her for a few moments longer, pulling her closer.
They’d both wanted to make love, yet now that she remembered the fate of the women Lang had forced into sexual slavery, neither one of them was in the mood for lovemaking.
Again, they didn’t have to discuss anything out loud. They each knew what the other was thinking.
Finally, he slipped away from her and sat up.
“Come on.”
He felt her terror and her determination.
“You won’t be alone.”
“After everything that’s happened, that’s the only reason I can do it, I think.”
Matt went to his computer and looked up the roads he’d seen in her mind.
They were in Harford County, and he mapped a route to the intersection of York and Sparks Roads.
He knew she didn’t want to go back there, but he also knew she had steeled herself to do what was necessary to bring down Derek Lang.
They drove north, and he followed her previous route in reverse. The farther they got up York Road, the more he could feel her tension. But she said nothing as he drove past the entrance to the house, which was on a two-lane rural road off Overbrook.
They came to a long drive with a small sign that said The Mansion. The house itself was up a long driveway, and they could barely see the house through the trees.
“Nice and private for the men who like to get their jollies here,” he said.
“And hard for the girls to escape. They probably don’t even know how close they are to the city.” She shuddered. “I can’t imagine how it is for them. They pay money to get out of their countries, and they’re full of hope, thinking they’re coming to something better. Then they end up here.”
“We’re going to get them out of the mess they’re in.”
“But Lang didn’t just start with this shipment. He’s been bringing in women for years. How many others did he lure here? And what happened to them?”
Knowing she was having trouble coping with the pain of the revelations, Matt reached over and covered her hand. “We can only deal with the situation that exists now.”
“I know.”
Getting back to practicalities, he said, “Last time, you parked on the other side of the property.”
“Yes.”
“Then let’s go in from this side.”
“Do you think they’ll be looking for us?”
“Hard to say. If you went to your house, you could have your memory back. But they smashed your computer, so they may assume you can’t find this location again.”
“Let’s hope so.”
He pulled onto a dirt track and parked under some low-hanging trees that hid the car. Then, he turned to Elizabeth.
“We need to make sure nobody sees us because if they do, they may well move the women.”
“Yes.”
It was getting dark, as it had been the first time Elizabeth had come here. They walked cautiously through the woods, being careful to make as little noise as possible.
Matt looked back at the way they’d come, thinking that they might be in a hurry on the return trip.
When they got to the edge of the trees, he squeezed Elizabeth’s hand.
“How far is the range of the cameras?” she asked.
“Probably not far since they want to concentrate on the grounds near the house.”
They were about fifty yards away, and they both stayed in the shadows under the trees as they looked toward the well-maintained structure.
“Quite a setup,” Matt murmured.
“Nothing but the best for Lang’s guests. Do you think he’s actually here?” she asked.
“Probably not. I’m guessing he steers clear of this place. You stay here while I have a look.”
“Okay.”
He caught the ambivalence in her mind. She hated sending him closer, yet she didn’t want to get near the house herself.
Lamps cast a soft glow throughout the first floor. As in Elizabeth’s earlier memory, light jazz drifted toward them. As Matt moved toward the house, he looked up and saw the nearest camera. Focusing on it, he sent a burst of energy toward it. When he heard a zapping sound, he knew he’d handled that problem.
Still, he waited for any sign that he’d been spotted. Like on Elizabeth’s previous trip, he had a good view through the windows. He saw casually dressed men looking like they were at a party and women in nightwear who looked out of place in the expensively furnished rooms.
Having confirmed that this was the right location, he was about to turn around and head back to the woods when he heard Elizabeth crying out a warning inside his mind.
Watch out.
But it was already too late. In the next moment, a rough voice ordered, “Hold it right there and raise your hands above your head.”
With a silent curse, Matt stopped in his tracks, upbraiding himself for being too focused on the view inside the building.
“Turn around,” the rough voice ordered.
There was no real choice since running for it would only get him a bullet in the back. He turned and faced a bald man dressed in a dark shirt and slacks. It wasn’t anyone he recognized from his previous brushes with Lang’s thugs.
“We’re going inside,” Baldy said.
Matt eyed him, thinking that he could send a bolt of power at the guy, but that was dangerous with the man’s finger on the trigger of a gun pointed at Matt.
And then he heard Elizabeth’s voice in his head, telling him what he’d told her back at Polly Kramer’s house.
Drop to the ground.
She was fifteen yards away, and he didn’t know if she could reach the guy from there. But he did what she asked, watching the man with the gun gasp and topple over. Luckily, he didn’t alert anyone else by pulling the trigger as he went down.
Elizabeth sprinted out of the woods. Matt clicked the safety on the gun and set it on the man’s abdomen. Together, they dragged the guy across the lawn and under the trees.
Matt turned to look back on the way they’d come. As far as he could see, no one else had noticed the capture.
Thanks, he said to Elizabeth.
I should have seen him sooner, but I was focused on you. She looked down at the guard, who was about Matt’s height, with bulging muscles and a swarthy complexion. What are we going to do? You said that if anyone saw us, they might shut down the operation out here.
Yeah. I’m thinking.
Can we … zap his brain or something?
It might cause him permanent damage.
Do you care?
He considered the question. He was a doctor dedicated to treating illness and injury. But in Africa, he’d gotten used to the truth that if someone tried to do you harm, you might have to beat him to the punch.
No, he answered.
How do we do it?
Aim a blast at his head , he said, then considered the answer more carefully.
“We don’t want him to come out of this like a vegetable.”
“Why not?”
“Better if he just has a memory gap. If it looks like he had a stroke, they might take him to the hospital and find something … off.”
“Then what do we do instead?”
“Blast his hippocampus.”
“Which is?”
“One of the areas of the brain that governs short-term memory. The other is the subiculum, which is next to it, but that’s only for very short term.”
He knew that they didn’t have time for a medical school lecture, but he sent her a picture of the brain, showing her the hippocampus, which was two horseshoe-shaped structures, one in the left hemisphere and the other in the right.
“It takes in memories and sends them out to the appropriate part of the cerebral hemisphere where they are retrieved when necessary.”
He knew she was studying the picture he’d sent.
The hippocampus. It’s kind of at the bottom.
Yeah. He pulled at the limp body of the unconscious man, arranging him so that his knees were under him, his butt was in the air, and the back of his head was facing upward at an angle.
Matt didn’t have to tell Elizabeth to give him power. She simply did it, and he felt it gathering inside himself—before he directed a thin stream of lightning at the back of the man’s head. The guy’s body jerked, and he fell over on his side.
Did that do it? Elizabeth asked.
Let’s hope so. And there’s one more thing we’d better do.
He picked up the gun, wiped it off with his shirt tail, and put it into the man’s hand.
Elizabeth tugged at Matt’s arm.
Come on. Let’s split.
Right.
They both headed back the way they’d come, making a wide circle around the man they’d left lying on the ground.
At the car, he wanted to stop and pull her close, but he knew that the first thing they had to do was get away—before more of Lang’s thugs came after them.
They both got into the vehicle, and Matt drove off, thankful that nobody was shooting at them.
I’m hoping life isn’t going to be a series of narrow escapes, she whispered in his mind.
We’ll be a lot safer when Lang is out of the picture.