Chapter Ten
Ten
Helen sighed. So many questions, not enough time. “When I get out of remote viewing, there’s a period which we call downtime. Sometimes it takes hours to get back to normal. I feel weak now in virtual reality, so I can imagine how bad I am when I get out of here.”
“Have you tried it before?”
“A version of it. It affects different people differently, but it cuts down on pain and exhaustion. Different versions of it have been field-tested on the military.”
She noted that he didn’t really answer her question. Of course, it would be inside her soon enough for her to know how it affected her. What, me worry? Her lips twisted mockingly. Too late for that.
“How will I communicate with you while on mission?” she asked.
“I’m your monitor at VR, not in field operations,” he replied. “You’ll just have to make do without me this one time.”
Helen looked up sharply. “How will I know you won’t be there?”
His gaze was amused. “You won’t.”
“I’m figuring out how this is supposed to work, you know.
” She cocked her head. “As I’ve told you, locating anything in RV is very tough.
A trailer park looks like a million other trailer parks after all, and a building vault like the one we’ve been in looks like any other, too.
It takes time to be specific. I’d have had to really explore around to find clues and even then, I wouldn’t be too sure if I had gone off somewhere else in the ether.
Yet, with you present in my mind, we have a twofold perception, me on my senses and you on the big picture. How am I doing so far?”
“That’s what any RV monitor does,” he pointed out.
“No, there’s a difference. You can actually sense my thoughts and feelings, so you have an advantage over a normal monitor, who would have had to really push me to find some kind of recognizable symbol.
A monitor just asks questions to guide me to sense different targets, and from there, we draw our conclusions from my descriptions.
Yet, you knew exactly how to confirm the location.
You told me to go to the lobby, remember?
” Helen tapped him on the chest. “You said you’ve been inside Deutsche International before.
Your knowledge saves a lot of time and makes our target more precise.
I might be the star of this show, Mr. Hades, but I have a feeling you’re the vehicle driving the whole getup. ”
The slow smile he gave her gave Helen a hint of the real personality behind her avatar. It was not just a smile of amusement but of acknowledgment of her conclusions. Deep in her gut, she knew that she was right.
This was no simple trainer. This was a man who had a whole lot of experience with certain targets, who had probably walked among these same targets so he would be able to recognize many of the places and people by sight or sound.
Hades wasn’t only her guide or monitor, but also her partner.
He was, in fact, here to make sure she didn’t fail: he was her data bank of knowledge when it came to the places and experiences.
Her awareness of him vibrated even as she spoke, as if the words and thoughts helped her feel out the real entity behind the avatar.
There wasn’t a doubt about the warning ringing through her being either.
Never mind that he was giving her a killer massage, the slow kneading of his hands making her remember how good he was with them.
She stopped herself from thinking about that, scowling at him as she watched the sensual tug of his lips widening.
She was dealing with a very dangerous man.
And he was enjoying himself way too much.
“How’s that for insight?” she pressed on.
“You’re close,” he said simply.
“Okay, I see we have lots of talking in the future,” she continued, “with me asking the questions and you answering them.”
Are you sure you want to talk all the time? You’re very stream-of-consciousness, you know, with your thoughts jumping from passwords to speeding to…pleasure.
Helen pulled at his hands and took a step back. “I bet if I could sense your mind, I’d feel all kinds of sexual deviant stuff.”
His brown eyes lit up with mischief. “Yes.”
She sighed. “And this mind reading only stays between us if you satisfy me with your answers.”
Satisfaction guaranteed. Good luck on your mission.
She could even hear the wickedness in his voice. She felt the familiar buzzing behind the back of her neck and bright light filled her sight. Hades had ended the session.
She began to feel the others helping to take off the components attached to her body. Her body felt a bit numb, as if she had been running very hard. Remote downtime could take hours, sometimes days, depending on how long the viewer stayed out in the ether.
“How long was I in there?” Helen asked, leaning back in the seat. She needed a minute…maybe two.
“Three hours.” Dr. Kirkland was busy checking her stats. “How do you feel?”
“That’s it?” Surprise mingled with disbelief. “I feel like an elephant had walked all over me. Usually that means I’ve been out for at least six hours.”
Dr. Kirkland smiled at her attempt at humor. “I’m not surprised. Projected studies point to the fact that Total Immersion Virtual Reality Remote Viewing will put a lot of stress on the mind and body.”
TIVRRV had just been a term in Helen’s head as she had gone through the stages of training. But now that she’d undergone the first experience of combining all those stages, she was suddenly aware of the significance of what she’d achieved.
Stress indeed. Not to mention having someone else talking in her head and other things she would rather not tell these scientists.
She couldn’t focus properly as she tried to recall every detail.
“This is good, right?” she asked, rubbing her neck absentmindedly, remembering a warm, sure hand.
“Then we’ll know for sure whether the next phase actually works. ”
The next phase was SYMBIOS 2, the drug that would cure all fatigue generated by remote viewing, thus enabling her to complete the mission.
This was the tricky part. She was in charge because only she knew what she had seen.
A whole group of operatives now depended on her version of what truth was, and if the operation failed, it meant she’d failed.
The world of remote viewing was a strange one.
Helen knew that many incidents had been summarized and filed away—world events and secrets—that the government hadn’t taken on because no one department was willing to send out a team on the word of a viewer.
Millions of dollars could go down the tube.
Lives could be lost. No one was willing to jeopardize their teams just to prove one person’s vision.
But a remote viewer, trained to spy and trained to go where no one had dared—that was the grand experiment. And Helen was it.
“We don’t have much time,” the assistant said to Dr. Kirkland.
“We’ll give her a few minutes.”
Helen shook off the fatigue, sitting straighter. “Get De Clerq.”
She stood up slowly and felt as if she was carrying fifty more pounds on her. Whoa. This was totally different from all the other sessions. She scowled at Derek when he proffered a hand. No. She would walk out of here without any help.
Gingerly, she took a few steps, willing her leaden feet to move normally. She found it easier to walk if she stared at each foot, moving one in front of the other as if she were robot-controlled.
“Sweetheart, at this rate we’ll never get started.” It was Flyboy at the doorway. “You’re going to need my help.”
Helen scowled. “No, thanks.”
He came forward just as she stumbled and scooped her into his arms with one easy swing. “Pride goes before a fall, haven’t you heard?”
“And what will it look like if you carry me into that meeting with all the brass looking on? Sure, that’d have their confidence in the mission soaring, wouldn’t it?”
Flyboy continued walking. “You’re right. But you can’t walk in like you’re Tim Conway impersonating an eighty-year-old either.”
Helen frowned. “Tim who?”
“You know, Carol Burnett’s sidekick from her show. The one that shuffles his feet when he impersonated…” Flyboy shook his head. “Never mind. It’s not funny when I have to explain his act.”
“You watched The Carol Burnett Show?” Helen asked incredulously.
“With my mom,” he told her, smiling down at her. “Here we are.”
Helen turned her head, startled that she’d forgotten that she’d been arguing about walking on her volition. Flyboy had taken her to the restroom.
“This will give you a few minutes while I go get a wheelchair,” he said, setting her back on her feet.
“A wheelchair isn’t going to give a good impression either,” she pointed out. She fought for balance. Dammit, she was having a lot of difficulty trying to coordinate her movements.
“Not if we have all the medical stuff attached to it as if we’re readying you for the drug. We’ll make it look okay.” Flyboy tilted her chin. His blue eyes were serious, searching hers. “Hey, the most important thing’s you being okay. Can you do this?”
Helen nodded. “You don’t think I’m going to back out at this stage, do you?”
“No, you don’t seem the type, although I question your sanity.”
“Didn’t I hear you say you put that stuff in you, too?” she asked, arching a brow. “Oh wait, you’re playing protective male about it being okay for you to do it but not me?”
His thumb teased the bottom of her lip. “You’ll know when I play protective male,” he told her.
She smiled at him. He really was so cute for being so concerned about her. “Does Tim Conway do his act in a wheelchair?”
Flyboy dimpled back at her. “When this mission is over, I’ll invite you over to see some great Carol Burnett classics. You’ll understand what I mean. Now go get refreshed. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”
“All right.”