Chapter Ten #3
“Why bring attention to me?” T. countered.
“Look at it from their perspective. Some of them are already miffed that their department didn’t get the project and funds.
And some of them are military men who aren’t used to women talking back at them, let alone a contract agent beating out whom they consider their best candidates. How are you feeling?”
Helen rolled her neck. “Better. I’m good to go.”
Dr. Kirkland opened his medical case. “Next time, we’ll inject the serum before the RV session,” he said, “so we can compare the difference in stats and vitals.”
“Okay,” Helen said. She watched the needle in the IV being inserted into her vein. She took a deep breath.
“How long?”
“It’s straight into the bloodstream, so it’s going to be really fast. You’ve gone through the med courses to prepare you on what to expect.”
“What likely to expect,” Helen corrected. “You guys have added several other ingredients to the first serum. Do you think the other departments have been fiddling with their recipes too?”
“Scientists don’t fiddle, Miss Roston,” Dr. Kirkland admonished.
Helen laughed because he was doing exactly that right now, fiddling with tubes and needles as Derek wrote things in his notepad. “Whoa!” she said loudly.
“What is it?” Dr. Kirkland asked sharply.
Helen smiled at all the people around the table. They were looking at her intently. “Just kidding,” she replied serenely. “Just wanted to see how important I am to everyone.”
Flyboy chuckled. “Try standing,” he said.
Helen nodded as she watched the last of the liquid disappear into her. It was inside her. She didn’t feel any different. Everyone watched as she stood up slowly. She walked away from the chair. The exhaustion was gone. But she still didn’t feel any different.
“Rock and roll,” she declared, giving De Clerq the thumbs-up.
He wondered whether she was feeling the same sensation that he was—he couldn’t really describe it. Like loss. Or missing a part of himself.
Good to have Madison on their side. T. was right. That joint venture with the admiral’s SEAL team, giving him information on the drug lords and operatives who had caused the deaths of his men, had been a good move.
He liked Madison, anyway, a no-nonsense man under whom he’d have served willingly, had he stayed in Special Forces. A man of his word was hard to find these days.
He studied Helen for a few moments, his gaze lingering on her face, trying to read her mind. It was strange now, not being connected to her. He was growing used to checking on her emotions and her thoughts.
The emotions were easy to gauge because he felt it and knew it was her reaction.
The thoughts were harder because he had to learn to separate his own from hers.
It was easier in the beginning. Her thoughts were focused on his avatar body; images of his nakedness slipped into his mind and he knew that was how she saw him in VR.
But it was different in remote viewing. Something had happened in the course of his putting a sexual imprint in her psyche while that brain oscillator had adjusted their brain waves to theta.
He had expected the remote viewing experience to be similar to what they had been doing but instead, her bilocation had been fully projected into his mind, as if she was the virtual reality room and he was experiencing what she was doing there.
He hadn’t needed to ask her any questions at all; he could see and feel what she was seeing and doing.
The only thing he couldn’t control was movement.
It was a strangely…disembodied experience. With full sensory capabilities.
He was excited by the experience. He’d never thought any new thing at COMCEN could excite him that much. But then, this involved Helen and anything she did excited him. He had thought to be inside her soon, but this was really inside her. And he had been there to feel her response to him.
Did she know what he had done? She had to.
She was a GEM operative and a remote viewing one.
She’d understood the implications of sexual mind imprintment.
She probably didn’t have the time to analyze it all yet but he had no doubt she would be even angrier once she did.
He looked forward to their next session.
He had an inkling what that serum would do. He wasn’t suffering from RV downtime or he’d take it himself and do the operation without her needing to have that shit inside her. The thought startled him.
He had never stopped any operative—male or female—from doing what they were trained to do before. In his world, every operative was needed for whatever capacity they were trained. Sometimes, it had meant sacrifice. Often, there was compromise. He had done both.
Helen was perfectly capable at getting this operation done, with or without him.
He’d watched her train for this moment and after getting some of her thoughts, he knew she was more than ready, mentally or physically.
It was the drug that worried him and with Helen, he was determined not to sacrifice or compromise.
“Operation instructions,” he said softly. “Number One, Number Four, Number Seven, Number Nine. Number One will start with initiating a dummy account. Number Five will obviously be transport. Number Four take care of weapons. Stand by for further instructions from Number Nine.”