“Yes.”She took the few steps to reach him and slowly put her hand in his. Her gaze was steady.“Everything I’m going to do is classified under the…”
He shook his head, silencing her.“I know the whole code by heart. This is an underground project, Elena. You don’t have to quote the rules of engagement to me. There aren’t any. You and I are doing something they can only imagine, and if we succeed, only we’ll know what rules have been broken.”
“Boy, the man can talk serious lingo,”Helen drawled. But she could feel her own excitement rising at his words.“So we’re going to break rules, huh? I like that in a man.”
His grasp tightened, just enough to make her gaze at him questioningly. He looked into her eyes intently. This time, he chose to communicate with his mind.They don’t trust what remote viewers see, Elena, you know that. It’s sneaking a peek at one point in time and experiments have shown that different viewers see different things and their reports won’t help a covert operation.
Helen shook her head.That’s when they experiment with viewing the future, Hades.
That’s Phase Three.
She winked at him.Something they haven’t trained me in, remember? It’s a tough phase, they said, lots of casualties. I take that to mean that they had many failures in getting their predictions right.
It could also mean another thing.
It was becoming more and more natural to communicate without speaking.What?
It could mean many have tried and died, Elena.
That jerked her out of silent mode.“How? They would just be remote viewing.”She frowned, going back to thinking.Predicting the future wrong won’t kill you, you know.
He turned. She had to follow his direction since his hand was still holding hers.One intrigue at a time. In today’s session, you’re going to show me how you work your trigger code. Then we’ll locate the target in the envelope.
So how come you’re leading?Helen mocked, although she didn’t resist. She wanted to continue their conversation. He was always leaving her with questions. He stayed silent, the quirk of his mouth mocking her back. If she had the time, she would play with this man.
There’ll be plenty of time for that, I promise, sweet Elena.
Before she could come back with a smart-aleck answer, Hades changed the scenery. She looked around, trying not to show her surprise. The place was an exact replica of the windowless remote viewing room at the CIA facility, from the all-gray soft canvas fabric to the all-gray round knobs on the drawers. Every detail was the way she remembered.
“How do you know what those rooms look like?”
“Photographs.”
“Oh sure, the CIA takes photographs of their secret rooms so you can reproduce and study them.”She tried to shake his hand off.“Don’t lie to me.”
“I’m not,”he denied.“We’ve been monitoring their program for some time.”
“Why create this in virtual reality then?”Why did they take the trouble to recreate a remote viewing room from another training facility?
She stared at his hand pointedly now but instead of releasing her, he brought it to his lips and kissed her fingertips.“I thought it might be easier for you if we use familiar surroundings.”He licked the sensitive pad of her thumb.“You can explain your SOP and tell me what to do in case something goes wrong and you get lost in the ether.”
He knew about the risks of getting lost in the ether then. Helen tried to focus on this as the rest of her body was busy reacting to his tongue. Why was he doing this?
He sank his teeth gently into the fleshy area and she almost moaned aloud. She refused to let him distract her.“I sit in the chair, turn on the biomachine, concentrate till the brain waves go theta, and then go into an altered state.”Telling him the standard operating procedure brought back some focus.
“Then what does your supervisor do?”
He certainly didn’t dothatto her hand.“Like everyone else—monitors me, makes sure the vitals don’t go crazy.”Her voice sounded husky to her ears.“Sometimes beginners can’t control their imagination. When they ‘go’ underwater, some would literally choke from holding their breath. It takes time to get used to mind-traveling.”
“Is that what you call it?”he said against her palm, seemingly able to hold a serious conversation and at the same time, explore erogenous zones on her hand that she never knew she had. Currents of delight zinged up her arm as he nibbled on a sensitive spot close to her wrist.“Does it ever get that real for you?”
“It feels real…like this,”she whispered. The man had a seriously sensuous tongue. How was it possible? It was so real in her mind that she wanted to pull his head down to hers so she could taste that tongue. Was his mind so locked with hers that everything he did affected her so realistically?
Helen moved her palm, delighting in the feel of his face as he stroked like a cat against her hand before turning his attention back to nibbling her, his teeth pulling on her flesh in a slow tantalizing manner before releasing it to kiss it better. She swayed closer.“And why are you trying to turn me on when there is a job to do?”
“I like touching you,”he whispered back.
He was keeping something from her.“So many lies, and I’m supposed to trust you?”
