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CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

I n the next room, the Emperor’s voice rises.

“She has a purpose and we need to see get her into action. She’s got a job to do. We can’t just keep on waiting.”

I freeze and press my ear against the thin wood wall.

The Mastermind says, “What do you suggest? We give her a script, teach her some lines and a couple of speeches, then throw her at the lions?”

The Emperor’s footsteps are heavy enough to make the wood floorboards bounce through the whole lodge. He says, “Come on…”

“No,” the Mastermind’s voice hardens. “I want to hear it. What are you saying we should do?”

Almost shouting, the Emperor growls back, “Do you see a way through this without her?”

“She’s not dead. Don’t talk about her like she’s dead.”

“She might as well…”

“DON’T!”

My heart hammers in the silence.

An engine roars outside. Two sets of footsteps beat on the wood steps and the door opens. The Emperor and the Mastermind call out, “Hey.”

I hear a grunt in the Warrior’s voice. Then the doctor.

“Is she here? I need to examine her.”

“First off,”the Emperor’s gruff snarl, “you’ve been brought up to date on her condition?”

“No change is what I’m hearing. But she’s healthy otherwise?”

The Emperor is demanding. “There has to be something you can do.”

The doctor takes a pause. Then, angrily, “You mean can I give her a drug that’s got all of her memories in? Or is there some kind of an electric shock that will switch all her lights back on? No. Human bodies are not machines. There’s no part I can swap out. There is no patch or upgrade I can load her up with.”

The Warrior cuts in. “Where is she?”

Then his boots head this way. Quickly I move away from the wall.

Not quickly enough, though. The Warrior is pretty instinctive. I can see he knows that I’ve been listening.

I sit on the side of the bed.

He tells me, “The doctor is here. He wants to see you. But you know that, right?”

I look up at him. “While you were away, getting the doc, the other two were… um… well, they kind of surrounded me.”

“Oh?” his eyes harden.

“Yeah they were… well, you know they were really close and–”

His lip twists. “What, are you coming to me for protection? ‘Daddy, save me from the nasty men’?”

“No… I…”

“Oh, so you’re just tattling. Telling tales.” His jaw flexes and his lips tighten. “Do you really think you can get us at each other’s throats? Set us off against one another?”

“NO! No, I…”

“Or do you just get off on the idea of having men fight over you, is that it?”

“No. I just wanted to be open with you. Have you hear it from me.”

“Hear what? Is that it? Or is there much more to hear? Is there a big reveal coming up?” His eyes narrow, “I mean, I’d hate for your story to get derailed with a spoiler.”

I look down and shake my head. I don’t know what to say. I try one more appeal, “We have a history. Right?”

He holds out his hand to tell me I need to come with him.

“Of all people,” he says, “I can’t believe you would do this.”

While I’m perched on a high stool by the kitchen breakfast counter, the doctor makes his examination. He checks my pulse, my temperature and other vital signs. Then he makes his tests with light in my eyes, peering into my throat, reflexes and so on.

After that he asks me memory questions. If I know the date, the day, my name, my date of birth. All that stuff again. Then he asks what I remember of the last couple of days.

As I hesitate over what to tell him, The Emperor says, “That’s enough, doc. You’re not on the need to know list for any of that.”

The doc says, “I need to establish–”

The Mastermind cuts in, “You’ll need to find another test to get what you need.”

The doctor’s face hardens. After a moment, he asks me how long it’s been since the last time we met. Then to describe the room that we were in. When I’ve done that he says, “You seem fine. You’re recovering really well.”

“All apart from the thing that you’re supposed to be specialized in, right, Doc?” The Emperor’s voice is hard. “What can you do to move things along?”

Turning back to square up to the Emperor, the doc says, “We talked about this,”

“Okay.” The Emperor nods. “Put your bag back together. I’ll take you back.”

As they head to the door, the Mastermind grabs the Emperor’s arm and looks in his eye. He hisses something into his ear and the Emperor’s mouth tightens.

After they leave, the Warrior says, “You reminded him he we might need the doc again.”

Nodding, the Mastermind pulls out tumblers and pours shots from the depleted bourbon bottle. “He knows. I thought it best to remind him, though.”

He raises the bottle and a glass toward me, but I shake my head, no.

They both sit and nurse their shots. The Warrior says, “We could bring her father. See if he can spark anything.”

“Risky in a lot of ways.” the Mastermind’s brow wrinkles. “And, the shape he’s in now, he probably wouldn’t recognize her. That would do more harm than good.”

Talk of my father doesn’t stir any memory. Like them, I’m now starting to wonder what might.

“There’s somebody else,” the Warrior says. “There was somebody else in the car.”

The Mastermind nods. “Your driver.”

“My driver?” I have a driver.

“He’s in the hospital.“

“Is he going to be okay?”

Reaching a hand toward me, the Warrior says, “We hope so. The doctors don’t know. Not yet.”

I’m choked and frustrated that somebody could be injured because of me. Even worse, I can’t even remember them. “I should remember him. I should remember his name, shouldn’t I.”

“You will.” The Mastermind moves bear and puts a hand on my shoulder.

“How do you know?”

Feeling these two ruthless me be so caring puts a lump in my throat. I don’t feel as if I deserve the tenderness they’re giving me. With them both so close, I want to wrap myself in their strong chests and hide away.

Hearing them talk about me, discussing me as a problem, gives me an unsettling feeling. Considering the ways this could go and what I might have to do. All of that and still with no clue who I am.

Being the only one who doesn’t know makes me angry. A taste of the rage that could follow makes me wonder once again, who the fuck am I?

“Do you know any familiar places that I might recognize? Could that stir something?” Even as I’m saying it, a dark sensation coils like a snake in my gut.

Whatever my mind is walling off and shutting out, there must be a reason. I’m starting to wonder how good an idea it is to break that wall down.

After a long pull on his whiskey, the Warrior looks across at the Mastermind, “That drone, it couldn’t have followed us here to the lodge, could it?”

“I had jammers and a detector running, all the way here.”

“No offense, but they didn’t do much good against the drone at the last place.”

“If there ever was one.”

“Are you serious?” With a frown and a glance at the door, he says, “He’s not getting to you, is he?”

The Mastermind shrugs. “Who knows? What do we really know for sure?”

They both glance at me as the Warrior says, “She’s not getting under your skin is she?”

“Me?” the Mastermind’s chuckle is dark and hollow.“Shouldn’t I be the one asking you that?”

The Warrior’s face darkens. “I’m going to step outside. Make a call.”

“Don’t do anything rash.”

Now I’m alone with the Mastermind, all my confidence evaporates. Facing the Emperor one-on-one was nerve-wracking, but at least the danger is out in the open. With the Mastermind, I have no idea what’s going on in his head.

He pours himself another drink and again he offers me one. He makes a small, puzzled frown when I decline. I think, He can’t be serious. Doesn’t he think I’m at enough of a disadvantage already? I feel like I’m walking a high-wire in a hurricane, miles up, and without even a pole.

He settles back into the couch and cocks his head to study me.

“We know that there was more going on around your escape and the cottage. Right? Something else happened.” Straight to that? He’s taken me by surprise. What he says next is even more unexpected.

“Level with me, okay? You’ve made a bond. Developed some feelings. Yes or no?”

I don’t react.

“Am I totally out of line thinking you have some feelings for me, too?”

I’m shaking more and more inside as he goes on. “When I came back to the lodge and the three of us were fooling around. You pretended you weren’t into it, didn’t you?” His chin lifts. “But I know you really were.”