“I’m not executing you. There would be questions. Procedures. Paperwork.” He shook his head. “Messy. You’ve already created quite the spectacle, but you’ve managed to offer a solution as well.” He stood. “You won’t die, not right away. You will simply go insane. Everyone already thinks you’ve snapped, so if they come to visit—someone like your sister, perhaps—they will see that you are truly out of your mind.”
The mention of Mia spiked even more fear into him. “She has nothing to do with this. She already thinks I’m mad, so you don’t need to bring her here.”
Ferro smiled. “As long as she accepts the story and leaves well enough alone, she’ll be fine.”
“And Violet?”
His smile mingled with an expression of disbelief. He shook his head. “All this over a woman.”
“She has nothing to do with whatever plan you’ve got cooked up. Leave her out of this.”
“Can’t do that. Like you, she’s trouble. You’ll have to be satisfied with your sister’s safety.”
The thought of Violet dying crushed Kade’s heart. All he could hope for was that she was clever and strong enough to evade them.
The man—Purcell, he thought his name was—opened the box and grabbed a black thing the size of a cockroach that tried to jump out. It wriggled in his hand where he held it tight.
“No doubt you’ve heard of the Black Bore Orb,” the man said, as though they were having polite conversation.
Every cell in Kade’s body froze. “Stories about them.”
“Well, you are about to get to know one very well. It bores into a person’s memories, fracturing them like a mirror being hit over and over, until all the pieces are so fragmented, they make no sense at all.”
Ferro stared at the orb with gruesome fascination. “Will it hurt?”
“I don’t think it’s terribly painful, per se, if their hands are bound and they can’t scratch at their heads or eyes to tear the thing out. It’s hard to tell. The recipient always screams, but I believe that to be the result of the chaos in their minds.” The man turned back to Kade. “Soon it won’t matter because your mind will be gone.”
Was that supposed to comfort him? Kade couldn’t take his eyes from the squirming orb, so eager to do its job.
Ferro asked, “How long will it take?”
“In three hours’ time, his mind will give up trying to make sense of what doesn’t make sense.”
Ferro’s expression turned grim. “Do it.”
The man stepped forward. Kade tried to evade him, jerking his head away. But he felt it drive into his ear with a suction sound, muffling everything but the horrid scrabbling sound as it pushed its way into his brain. He hit his head against the wall, trying to dislodge it. Pain washed through him, but it didn’t stop the orb.
Memories tumbled through his mind, like a deck of cards thrown up into the air. Mentally he grabbed for them, as though he could keep them safe. He latched onto one: making love to Violet. He saw her beautiful face as he touched her, kissed her…and then she fractured.
18
Mia walked into Headquarters, passing through the secure side door with her identity card and walking into the pit area. Violet walked in right behind her, so close she could smell the woman’s shampoo.
Several officers who were clustered together looked up, and their conversation came to an abrupt halt. They stared at Mia, some with pity, some with derision.
Nobody saw Violet. She was surrounded by a glass orb, similar to the illusion orb Kade had created on the Slade property. Mia said it made whatever it contained invisible and was better suited for well-lighted areas than the mirror orb. It looked as fragile as a bubble, the same way the mirror orb had. Violet kept her hands at her sides, afraid to accidentally poke it and have it burst.
Ferro came out of the unmarked door leading to the prison area. Violet knew the layout, had imprinted it during the short drive from the marina. The prison was on the third floor, up a dedicated passage.
Ferro’s face was pale and drawn, but he recovered his cool expression when he saw Mia approaching.
“I want to see him,” she said, her voice filled with emotion Violet knew was genuine.
“I’m not sure that’s a good idea. He had a reaction to the anti-psychotic meds. I’d rather you wait until he calms down.”
“No, I want to see him now.” Her voice was raised, shrill enough for anyone in the pit area to hear. And they did, turning their way.
“Very well, but it’s not pretty.”
