Page 53 of Artifice (Pros and Cons Mysteries #4)

“ N o more drugs,” Colin whispered, the knife shaking violently in his hand. Sweat beaded on his forehead as he fought against whatever was controlling him. “Please.”

“You’ve been a fascinating subject, Colin.” Henry stepped closer with the syringe. “But I’m afraid your usefulness has reached its end.”

The moment Henry reached for Colin’s arm, Olive made her move.

She lunged forward, her rope falling away as she tackled Henry to the ground.

The syringe clattered across the floor as they fell.

Director Ingraham reached for the syringe. But Tevin, still restrained, swept the woman’s legs out from under her with a powerful kick.

“Colin!” Olive called out, struggling to keep Henry pinned. “Help us!”

The boy stood frozen, knife still in hand. His expression flickered between vacancy and terror as his mind seemed to fight against the chemicals controlling it.

“Subject P-18, protect me!” Henry shouted, his calm facade cracking. “That’s an order!”

Colin took a step forward, then another.

He raised his knife toward Olive.

His movements were jerky, as if each step required tremendous effort.

“Think of Abe,” Olive said desperately. “Think of your mom and dad. They’re going to be devastated.

All your mom does right now is cry. More than anything, she wants to take you on that trip to Yosemite you always talked about.

She knows how much you want to rock climb there.

Onward and upward! She said that’s your catchphrase. ”

Colin froze, and understanding dawned in his eyes, followed by horror, then rage. With a guttural cry, he turned.

Not toward Olive but toward Henry.

“What did you do to me?” Colin demanded, advancing on the man who had turned him into a weapon. “What did you do to me?”

Henry scrambled backward. “Ingraham! Security!”

But Director Ingraham was slumped against the wall unconscious. Tevin now stood, hands still bound. But the syringe meant for Colin was at his feet. He must have grabbed it and injected her.

“Quick thinking,” she muttered.

“I try.” He shrugged.

“It’s over, Henry.” Olive turned back to the man and heaved out a deep breath. “Your operation here is finished.”

Henry’s face contorted with fury as he backed against the wall. “You understand nothing. This is bigger than all of us. The work we’re doing here will change humanity forever. Control without conflict. Order without resistance.”

“You mean slavery.” Tevin shook his head.

Colin stood in front of the mastermind, knife still in hand. His arm trembled with the effort of resisting his programming.

He wanted to harm Henry—and Olive couldn’t blame him.

But she did need to stop him.

“Don’t do it, Colin,” Olive said softly. “That’s what they want—what the drugs want. To make you a killer. You’re better than that, Colin. Onward and upward. Onward and upward.”

Her words seemed to trigger something. The boy’s face crumpled, and the knife clattered to the floor.

Olive grabbed it.

Then Colin collapsed to his knees, sobbing.

Henry remained frozen against the wall.

In the distance, an alarm began to blare.

Backup would be here at any minute.

“Keep an eye on him while I help Colin,” Olive told Tevin as she cut through his restraints, freeing his hands.

Then she knelt beside Colin, placing a gentle hand on his shoulder. “We’ll help all your classmates. Just like we’re going to help you.”

“Can you?” Colin looked up, his eyes clearing slightly but still haunted. “After what they’ve done to us?”

Olive thought of her father, of all the names and identities she’d assumed over the years, of the masks she still wore.

If anyone understood the idea having to reclaim yourself, it was her.

“Yes,” she said with conviction. “One step at a time. The first step is getting out of these tunnels and finishing what you started—exposing Lighthouse Harbor for what it really is.”

The blare of the alarm grew louder, echoing through the stone tunnels with a deafening insistence.

Olive helped Colin to his feet while Tevin kept watch over Henry.

“We need to get out of here,” Olive said.

“What do you want to do with him?” Tevin nodded at Henry.

“I’d say take him with us, but he’ll only slow us down. Tie him up. We have enough evidence to put him away. But we have to get out of here so we can tell the proper authorities.”

They quickly did that, even as Henry muttered curses at them.

Then Olive grabbed Colin, ready to lead him to safety. Tevin, meanwhile, grabbed Mr. Thorne and helped him to his feet.

But they’d only taken a step when Henry spoke.

“You think you’ve won?” Henry’s voice sounded eerily calm despite their situation. “There are six armed guards between you and the exit. They won’t let you leave with what you know.”

As if on cue, gunfire erupted in the distance, followed by shouting.

Tevin exchanged a worried glance with Olive. “I don’t like the sound of that.”

“We need to move.” Olive kept her arm around a still-disoriented Colin and led him toward the tunnel entrance. “Can you keep walking?”

Colin nodded shakily. “I think so.”

They’d only taken a few steps when footsteps pounded down the corridor toward them. Olive pushed Colin behind her, knowing the knife they had wouldn’t offer much protection against guns.

A figure appeared in the doorway, silhouetted against the emergency lights flashing in the corridor.

For one heart-stopping moment, Olive thought they were facing the first of Henry’s guards.

Then the figure stepped into the light.

“Simon?”

He was dressed in tactical gear, a pistol held expertly in a two-handed grip. His usual casual demeanor was gone, replaced by focused intensity.

His gaze swept the room. He aimed his gun at Henry.

But Simon stayed in place, staring at Olive.

Relief flickered across his face. “You’re alive.”

“And you’re . . . FBI? You’re the one Mr. Thorne is working for.”

A grim smile played on Simon’s lips. “The FBI? No way. I’m CIA counterintelligence. With the help of Mr. Thorne, we’ve been tracking this operation for months.”

Olive stared at Simon. “You knew about all of this?”

“Not all of it.” Simon kept his weapon trained on Henry. “We knew someone was developing something for foreign buyers. We didn’t know these people were using children as test subjects until I got inside.” His expression darkened. “Or that they’d perfected it to this degree.”

“Abe,” Colin said suddenly. “We need to find Abe.”

Simon nodded. “The students are being secured as we speak.”

As if to confirm his words, a team of agents in tactical gear flooded into the chamber, weapons raised.

“Clear!” The lead agent called, before addressing Simon. “We’ve secured the main facility, sir. Dr. Wells was attempting to destroy records in his office. We caught him before he succeeded.”

“Good work,” Simon muttered.

Olive stared at Simon with new understanding.

He shrugged, almost apologetically, as he seemed to read the questions in her gaze. “Special Operations Director, Northeast Division. Though I find fieldwork keeps me sharp.”

Two agents moved to secure Henry, who no longer looked quite so confident.

“This is bigger than you realize,” Henry spat as agents led him past. “The program has backers in governments across three continents. We’ve been working on this for decades. You can’t stop progress.”

“Watch us,” Simon replied coldly, before turning to Olive. “We found seventeen students in various stages of chemical alteration. Medical teams are assessing them now.”

“Hopefully they’ll get the help they need.”

“They will. The other good news,” Simon continued, “is that we’ve confiscated all of Dr. Wells’ research. Our best minds will be working on reversing the effects.”

More agents arrived, bringing medical personnel who immediately moved to assess Mr. Thorne’s and Tevin’s injuries as well as Colin’s condition. Margaret remained passed out on the floor and would need to be checked also.

Olive stood beside Simon in the midst of the controlled chaos, watching everything unfold. “How did you find us?”

“Rex got up with me, asking some questions,” Simon explained. “He was worried when you stopped answering your phone. We were keeping an eye on you and saw you on the cliff. We saw Stephanie drug you, and then the men took you down here. It was just a matter of getting our men in place after that.”

Olive shook her head, still processing. “All this time, you were?—”

“Doing my job. Just like you.” Simon glanced toward the tunnel where Colin was being guided toward medical attention. “Though I’d say you did it better. You got through to him when our best psychological experts thought it would be impossible to break the conditioning.”

In the distance, more shouts echoed as agents continued to secure the facility.

“It’s over.” Simon holstered his weapon. “Lighthouse Harbor is finished.”

But as Olive looked toward the tunnel where they’d taken Colin, she knew there were other students fighting their own chemical prisons.

This wasn’t over. Not for the children who’d been used. Not for the families who would struggle to understand what had happened to their kids.

And not for her. This case had stirred up too many ghosts from her own past—her father’s cons, Oakridge, Sheffield.

Questions still remained.

The tunnels suddenly felt colder. Olive knew with certainty that Lighthouse Harbor had been just one piece of a much larger puzzle.

But for now, they’d stopped children from being human lab rats. They’d exposed the operation.

It was enough for today.

Olive took a deep breath and followed Simon toward the surface, toward daylight and whatever answers awaited her there.