Chapter 21
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
“Do you know how to find the estate?” Stephanie Branson asked Rachel.
“I think so.”
The six members of the team from Louisiana had landed at BWI International Airport and rented a van.
As a group, they had decided that Rachel and Jake Harper should go on the rescue mission, along with Matt Delano, Elizabeth Forester, and Stephanie and Craig Branson.
Gabriella Bordeaux and Luke Buckley had stayed home because she had to keep the restaurant open to make it look like everything was normal at the Bordeaux plantation.
The team had already crossed the Bay Bridge and were speeding down Route 50, heading for St. Stephens, when Rachel gasped.
“What’s wrong?” Jake demanded.
“Smith is getting ready to kill Olivia and Gabe Bowman, the detective who was investigating Travis’s death.” She had already filled the group in on the players, so they understood the situation.
“Smith,” Stephanie muttered.
“And we still don’t have his real name?”
“Unfortunately, no.”
Still, they were pretty sure he was the same guy who had tried to kidnap Stephanie and later Matt and Elizabeth.
On the way from New Orleans to Baltimore, Rachel had told them as much as she knew. They understood that Gabe wasn’t one of the children from the Solomon Clinic. He’d gotten caught in Smith’s net when he was investigating Travis’s death.
Rachel had been getting ready to direct Jake to Smith’s estate, but suddenly she gasped.
“What is it?” Stephanie asked.
“Smith’s going to deep-six Olivia and Gabe. Change of plans. Instead of heading for his estate, we have to get to the town dock and rent a boat.”
Rachel turned to Jake. “Can you drive any faster?”
“If we get stopped by a cop, that will only slow us down,” he answered.
* * *
Olivia had become an expert at reading Smith’s expressions. He was trying to look reassuring, but he couldn’t hide the malevolence just below the surface.
“We’re going for a boat ride,” he said. “I’ll leave you and the detective off on an uninhabited island. That way, you’ll have a fighting chance.”
Oh sure, she thought. He was trying to make this like one of those survival reality TV shows. But since any comment she made would only make things worse, she kept silent.
His eyes narrowed. “You look like you’re plotting something.”
“No.”
Ignoring her protest, he went on, “That would be a mistake. Don’t spoil anything by trying to get away.
I wouldn’t want to have to shoot you. My men are bringing Carson’s boat to my dock.
After they let you off, they’ll come back and leave the boat drifting.
It will look like there was an emergency on board and you had to abandon ship. ”
Travis had moved beside her and stood with his hand protectively on her shoulder. She saw Smith squint, and a spurt of alarm crossed his face. “What’s that?” he demanded.
“What’s what?”
“I thought I saw...” His voice trailed off.
She might have asked what he had seen, but she suspected that would only earn her a hard slap across the face. And when she sensed Travis getting ready to fly at the man, she shouted a warning in her head. No. That will only make him start questioning me about you.
Regret and anger flashed in Travis’s eyes, and she saw him clench his fists. Unfortunately, that’s right.
Hopefully we’ll get a chance to smack his self-satisfied face, she answered, praying it was true. It would be a miracle if they got out of this alive.
Travis’s inner voice was gritty. I wish we were strong enough to kill him now. But we’re not. And if we try, we’ll make him change his plans. He’ll move up his timetable and kill you now.
She winced at the blunt words, but she knew they had to be realistic.
We need to make some plans of our own.
During the silent conversation, Smith had turned away, and she couldn’t see what he was doing.
Suddenly, he whirled toward her, and she saw with alarm that he had a hypodermic in his hand.
Instinctively she tried to pull away, but the table held her fast. And before she could take two breaths, he jabbed the needle into her arm.
“No,” she cried out in anguish.
“I’m not taking any chances with your being able to do something tricky. I’ll be back for you when we’re ready to leave.
She desperately clawed at consciousness, but she felt it slipping away. In her mind, she could hear Travis cursing. We should have taken a chance. We should have tried to blast him.
That was the last thing she heard.
* * *
The group from Louisiana headed straight for the St. Stephens town dock, and paid a premium to rent a fast boat.
As soon as they cleared the marina, they headed downriver toward the Chesapeake Bay.
They had no fixed destination. All they could do was make for the location of the.
..ghost who was now guiding Rachel toward open water.
It felt weird to call him that, but she couldn’t think of another word to describe him.
Because of their speed, the telepaths were able to catch up while the other vessel was still heading out to sea. As the rescue party drew near, they used their combined efforts to make their craft disappear from view so that the thugs had no idea that they were being followed.
At the same time, Rachel’s contact with...the ghost grew stronger.
Call me Travis, he told her. That’s my name. Thank you for showing up. I was afraid there was no way you could get here in time. I assume you’re also part of Dr. Solomon’s experiment.
Yes. What’s happening, exactly? Rachel asked.
You know about Mr. Smith?
The man who’s been trying to capture one of us?
Right. He’s given up on trying to find out what we can do. I think he believes it’s too dangerous. Which is why men are taking Olivia and Gabe Bowman out to sea now.
And Olivia bonded with you?
Yes.
Which means both you and Olivia are children from the Solomon Clinic.
Yes.
Let me tell the others.
After conveying the information, Rachel said to Travis, You must have extraordinary powers to have bonded with her...after death.
No, he corrected her. I couldn’t have done it without Olivia.
* * *
Gentle rocking woke Olivia. The motion of a boat on the water, she realized.
Smith had said he was putting her and Gabe on a boat, and she could smell the tang of the bay.
They must be way beyond the river by now.
But she could see nothing except what looked like a closed, dark room. She must be somewhere below.
Olivia. Travis’s inner voice was urgently saying her name. He had probably been calling to her for a while, trying to wake her up, but she had been beyond his reach. Now that she was coming around, his words penetrated the fog in her brain.
A rough hand shook her, and her eyelids fluttered. They felt like they had been glued together, and it was a tremendous effort to raise them.
“She’s waking up.”
“Ahead of schedule. The boss said not to let that happen—that she could be dangerous.”
“How?”
“Don’t know, but we’d better work fast.”
She saw one of the men looking over his shoulder.
“What?” the other guy demanded.
“I keep feeling like there’s another boat coming up on us fast.”
The second guy paused for a moment. “I don’t see nothin’.”
“But the water. What’s making those little waves?”
“Currents,” his partner snapped.
As they talked, they were doing something to her ankles.
First, they cut off the ropes that bound them, and she had a moment to enjoy the freedom from restraints.
Her ankles were raw from the rope, and she wanted to rub some lotion on them.
But they weren’t going to give her the chance.
All too soon, the rope was replaced with something that chafed her skin—something heavy.
Wha?
Weights like in a gym. Christ, they’re putting weights on you.
Her brain felt like it was full of cotton candy. Desperate for clarity, she fought for full consciousness, fought to make sense of what was happening.
They lifted her hands, and she felt the cuffs being pulled away. Her wrists felt as raw as her ankles.
“Hurry.”
“If the cops find the bodies, won’t they think the weights are a little strange?”
“Smith said the outer shell will dissolve after a few hours in water, and the heavy part will sink away.”
Somebody lifted her up and slung her over his shoulder like a side of beef. Then he began to climb a short flight of stairs, wavering as he balanced her weight. In a few moments, she was on deck. She caught a glimpse of Gabe, who looked to be in similar condition.
An island. They were supposed to be heading for an island. She caught no sight of land and remembered that it had been Smith’s lie.
But there was something else. It looked like a ghost boat, not quite solid but somehow visible.
She had no time to puzzle that out. No time to say anything to Gabe. In the next moment, she was lofted into the air before crashing down into the water hard enough to sting. The moment she hit, she began to sink. She was a good swimmer, but she simply couldn’t keep her head above the surface.
Oh Lord. Suddenly, she flashed back to a terrible memory, the nightmare that had seized her by the throat before she had met Travis.
The horrible scene when Smith’s men had flung him overboard into the sea.
Back then, she had told herself it was only a bad dream, but she had felt it with him.
Now it was all happening again. Only this time, she was the one drowning, sinking into the water with no hope of escape.
Desperately, she tried to tread water, but her legs felt like lead. Then she realized the problem. The weights wrapped around her ankles were pulling her down.
* * *
Rachel caught her breath. I see Olivia and Gabe now. The men hauled them up on deck. Oh God, they threw her over—then him.
At that moment, she saw Travis, a vague man shape that certainly wasn’t visible to the thugs who had just pitched their victims into the bay. Travis ran to the side of the boat and executed a perfect dive into the water.
As Rachel watched, she keyed into the frantic exchange between her husband, Jake Harper, and Craig Branson:
They’re sinking.
And the boat is speeding away.
You go after Olivia, and I’ll try to get Gabe, Jake said.
Another water rescue.
It’s a lot deeper out here than any bayou.
* * *
Olivia flailed and kicked in despair, trying to force herself upward through the murky water. Somewhere above her, she thought there was sunlight and air. But it might as well have been on the far side of the moon. In her condition, there was no way she could fight the drag of the ankle weights.
Travis was with her, talking to her, ordering her to hold on, saying that help was coming.
But it was no good. She was too far down in the watery depths.
Cold and darkness closed in around her. Regret tore at her.
She remembered people saying that your life flashed before your eyes when you were dying.
Something like that happened to her, not all the details, but the sadness of being alone.
And then the miracle of Travis finding her.
She had basked in the feeling of connection.
Oh Lord, if she’d only met him earlier. If they’d only had more time together.
But fate had kept them apart for too long and then snatched them away again.
Could they find each other in the afterlife?
Or was her death the end of everything for them?
She longed to fight for her life, but there was no exit from this final act of her existence.
She tried to hold her breath, but then suddenly everything changed.
Somehow, there was no more drag on her legs, and a man was lifting her to the surface.
She kept trying to hold her breath, but it was no good.
Because her lungs were desperate for air, she inhaled—only to drag in seawater.
The choking pain hit her as someone lifted her to the surface, where more hands reached out and grasped her. That was the last she remembered until she began to gasp and choke.
“She’s coming around,” somebody shouted.
“Thank God. What about the other one?”
The answer came in somber tones. “I’ve done everything I could, but I’m afraid we’ve lost him.”
Who was speaking? Where was she? On a boat? The same one?
Other people clustered around, but they were all in the background as Travis hovered over her. Even when she’d been unconscious, she’d never lost the connection with him.
A man was talking. Somehow, she knew he was a doctor. “It’s too late. He was down too long.”
Travis spoke frantically in her mind. I think I can save him.
Do it.
He won’t be the same. I won’t be the same.
She wasn’t exactly sure what he meant. Not the same? What? But her conviction was strong. She was alive. Gabe Bowman had tried to help her. It wasn’t fair for her to live and for Gabe to die.
Do it, she urged Travis. If you can save him, do it.