Chapter Eleven #2
Although a think tank was an independent entity in itself, using different and often unorthodox sources for its research and funding, it was highly unusual for a well-known international weapons dealer to walk in on an official meet.
They mixed and wheeled and dealed at private parties, not in public places.
Thus, Barinsky’s sudden arrival would be a problem for the institute.
But that could be easily diverted with a few big security dudes blocking their entrance, so what was Alex using as bait to get the attention of the right people at Deutsche International? No one had told her that either.
She should feel frustrated. Or, pissed-off at the lack of information.
Helen looked at the blueprint on her lap. She felt mildly…something…She couldn’t define the emotion. Like an itch that wasn’t quite there.
The blueprint showed only what they knew, so there wasn’t any way to find out how to get to those floors underground. There was an elevator—that much she knew. She traced them in the drawing with her forefinger. Which one?
In her mind, she recreated the elevator she’d seen during RV. The wood paneling. The one button. This elevator only goes up or down from one location. She chased the image as it faded away. She needed more information.
Staring deeper into the blueprint, she rebuilt the whole elevator again, adding dimensions, adding a richer color—dark oak paneling, two-tone carpet, brass-looking lever on one side of a panel—and following instinct, added the feeling of weight under her feet, the way an elevator would jerk when it moved.
The droning of the plane engine sounded like the hum of an elevator.
Her finger traveled on its own, moving across the paper. Her eyes closed.
“What do you see, 51?”
“The key’s still there,” he told them obediently. There was something wrong with the feel of the location, though, but he dared not tell them that. Locating objects had always been iffy anyway. He had time to get to the right place while they waited here.
He felt so good. He had never felt like this in all his experience with the drug. Doubling the dosage doubled everything. He could target what he wanted faster. He could see the glow. Here was one.
He slipped into the energy of the woman passing him.
Oh yeah. There was sex today. He delved deeper, looking for feedback.
But the memories were running like slides—too fast—and he hadn’t found a way to slow it down yet.
Those marvelous feelings he craved rushed through him like one of those European bullet trains. Too fast! No time to enjoy her!
Next.
Next!
“What do you see, 51?”
“The key’s still there,” he told them again, mentally checking quickly.
Of course it was still there; they were decoding something, weren’t they?
Who cared? He needed—wait, wait, wait. Deep breath.
He had to work with these guys here or he would get into trouble.
“Many people in this building. It’s confusing my senses a bit.
Can I ask how we’re going to get to the key in this crowd? ”
“He’s got a point,” the other man said. “Why are there so many damn people going there?”
“Make a couple of calls and find out,” his monitor said. “Agent 51, if the key changes location, let me know.”
“Of course,” he said. That was easy enough. It only took quick mental feedback to establish that. He didn’t particularly care what it was being used for, not right now anyway. So many people. He must find a way to slow this down.
He felt the woman from that first session, the one with the secret lover. Secret lovers were always fun. They tried out exciting stuff, no quickies in the morning, none of the boring husband-wife roll in and out. He liked what he had seen in her. Where was she?
Change channel. Not this room. Change channel. Not this room. Change channel…she was here, talking to her man. He jumped eagerly into her energy. Oh, wow. She was talking sexy to her lover.
Her whole energy was beautiful; she was so damned turned on.
Talk more, baby, keep talking. Too fast—the images were too fast—but the feeling.
Oh, man, the feeling. He mentally turned the volume louder and added her heartbeat and breathing into the cadences, letting her breathy words slide through his being like warm honey.
It didn’t matter that he couldn’t hear what she was saying exactly.
He felt all her sexual need in that voice.
Oh, God, she was a hot bitch for sure. Her whole energy was filling up with such exquisite demand for sex.
He caught a quick image of her standing naked in front of a mirror, parting her legs.
He wanted that memory, he wanted—shit! What could he do to stop this speeding?
He wrapped himself inside her glow, smelling her scent, wanting her. Maybe the drug would taper off just a bit and then he would be here, ready to record.
“He really seems out of it,” he heard a voice say in the distance.
“They always seem a bit more into their remote viewing with a higher dosage. He’s been answering me, so he’s okay. Now, let’s deal with this problem with the people. How are we going to get around the presence of so many VIPs?”
“The other side’s going to have the same problem, too. We’ll take care of them after they retrieve the component. Just make sure our guy here keeps tabs on the key. Let them do the work. We’ll know when the key is moved, right?”
“Agent 51, are you still with the key?”
They were so stupid. He realized that now. They had never remote viewed and so would never understand the beauty of it. He didn’t need to be with the key.
“It’s where it was when I first saw it,” he replied honestly. “They have found three of the six codes in the password, I think.”
“Good.”
Oh, better than good, baby. He was doing better than good. He wondered whether his hard-on in his physical body was obvious to his monitor because he could feel its churning urgency where he was. He needed to do something about that soon.
“Helen, can you hear me?”
Helen blinked. Alex’s face was near hers, his eyes watchful. “Yeah, what?”
“I thought you fell asleep but your hand was moving. You didn’t answer me the first few times I called your name.”
“Oh.” Helen looked down on her lap. Her finger was pointing off the blueprint. “You said my hand was moving?”
“Yes. Rather, your finger was moving, as if it was drawing. I didn’t want to interrupt but you started jabbing your finger into your thigh really hard and I wasn’t sure whether you weren’t hurting yourself.”
Helen frowned. “Huh.” She turned her finger over and studied the tip of her finger. “And I didn’t wake up even though I was jabbing myself?”
“Obviously not.” Satisfied that she was okay, Alex straightened back into his seat. “What was that all about?”
“I’m not sure,” Helen said slowly, still studying her finger.
“When we started remote viewing, one of our first exercises was kind of like automatic writing, where we were told to let ourselves draw out ideograms, but that was done with me fully aware. This has never happened before. Wish I was holding a pen.”
“Then you would have punctured your thigh,” Alex said quietly. “You were using quite a bit of force.”
“But what was I writing?” She frowned, trying to remember. “I can’t remember a thing. That’s never happened before either. I wasn’t actually asleep, I don’t think.”
“This might be a side effect of the serum,” Alex said. “Make a note of it and report it to Dr. Kirkland. He’s trying to find the right dosage for each individual.”
“To do what?” She turned her gaze to the man sitting across from her.
“To make sure you don’t OD.” He arched a brow at her. “It is a drug in you, you know. Haven’t you considered that you can overdose on it? They think they can control the cause and effect through dosage, but this serum doesn’t stay the same in every individual.”
“So some would need more for it to take effect,” Helen finished for him, nodding as she added, “and for some, it would be way too much.”
She thought of Armando Chang’s fascination with illusion. Was that part of the effect of SYMBIOS 2 on him? She had to have that chat with him when she returned to Center.
But what was she writing? She had drifted off—if that was what one would call what happened—while memorizing the layout of Deutsche International.
Whatever she was writing—did it have to do with the blueprint of the place?
She wracked her brain, trying to remember.
She had been tracing the elevator in the layout and had used what she could remember from the RV session earlier, focusing on the details.
If she had somehow gone into remote viewing mode, she hadn’t been aware of it and for the first time, couldn’t recall anything.
Besides, where was the downtime, that feeling of numbness?
She shook her head. The serum might be taking care of the downtime fatigue right now. No time to worry about it.
“We’re almost at zero hour. How are you?” Alex interrupted her thoughts.
Helen glanced up. “I’m fine. I feel fine.” Alex’s eyes narrowed a fraction, but he didn’t say anything. She cocked her head, a smile touching her lips. “Worried about me, Agent Diamond?”
Alex Diamond leaned back and closed his eyes again. “Try not to jab yourself before we get there.”
There was just something about him that tempted her to bait him. Maybe it was his lack of reaction to anything.
“I bet you would be more worried had it been T. who had the serum in her and she started doing weird stuff,” Helen said slyly.
“Yes,” he said, calm as could be, eyes still closed.
Helen stared at him, then laughed. She was beginning to like the guy.