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It had taken him a while to figure out that his powerful psychic talent had vanished. He had run a couple of feeble experiments on a medical assistant who had come into the room to check his vitals. Nothing. The target had been oblivious to the invisible assault.
Cloudy memories of the encounter in the parking garage were slowly trickling back. The hit had failed, he was sure of that much. He was also certain that it wasn’t his fault. The intel he had been given was bad. Rand had not only survived the initial dose of theserum, his talent had been enhanced to a lethal level. The kicker was that he did not require the boosters to maintain his enhanced abilities.
The hospital door opened again. A figure dressed in scrubs entered the room, closed the door, and came to stand over the bed.
For a few seconds Jasper worried that he was hallucinating. And then a throat-tightening wave of relief coursed through him.
“Gill,” he whispered. “About time you showed up. You’ve got to get me out of here. I need a booster.”
“Don’t worry,” Nathan Gill said. “I’ll handle everything.” He took a syringe out of his pocket and plunged it into Draper’s shoulder. “There you go. In a few minutes you’ll be fine.”
“Fuck. That is good news.” Jasper flopped back onto the pillow. “The intel on Rand was wrong. He’s got some heavy-duty talent.”
“No, the serum nearly killed him. He survived but there’s no indication that his senses were enhanced.”
“You don’t understand.”
“For a while I thought you were my proof of concept, and to some extent that’s true. But you were unstable before you were given the serum and unfortunately the enhancement protocol has accelerated your deterioration.”
“No. I’m proof that the formula works.”
“Initially it enhanced your talent, but it has become obvious that you don’t have the strength and control to handle the upgrade. You collapsed at a very inopportune time in the garage, didn’t you?”
“I didn’t collapse. I’m telling you, Rand used his talent on me.”
“We both know that if he had any serious talent he would have used it to kill you. After all, he was fighting for his life. The fact that you’re still alive tells me that he didn’t have anything to do with your collapse.”
“As soon as the booster takes effect I’ll deal with Rand.”
“I’m afraid you won’t be leaving here alive,” Gill said. “That wasn’t another dose of the serum that I gave you. It was something else. You’re going to have a heart attack in about thirty seconds.”
“You can’t do this. You need me. I’m the only asset you’ve got.”
“You’re of no use to me now.”
Jasper pulled hard on his senses, marshaling every ounce of strength he could summon, but there was no response. A great weakness was rolling over him, suffocating him. There was a crushing weight on his chest. The ghosts of his kills were gathering closer around the bed.
He was vaguely aware of the sound of the door closing.
And then there was nothing.
CHAPTER SIXTY-ONE
The podcast teamgot together on a video call the next morning. Pallas and Ambrose, wearing sunglasses, beamed in from a Phoenix resort where they were drinking coffee on a sunny patio. Amelia was also wearing dark glasses. She was on the balcony of her San Diego apartment. There were a couple of palm trees in the background.
Talia and Luke were at the dining counter of her apartment, mugs of coffee in front of them. They were not wearing sunglasses. It was nearly eight o’clock, so, technically, the sun was up in Seattle—barely—but there was no visible evidence of that, because it was raining.
“Jasper Draper died during the night,” Talia said. “They’re calling it a heart attack associated with his seizure, but Luke and I suspect that Nathan Gill got to him.”
“It makes sense that Gill would want to get rid of him,” Amelia said. “Draper knew too much and he was a ruthless, unstable assassin endowed with a lethal psychic talent.”
“Right,” Talia said. “What could possibly go wrong?”
She ignored Luke’s enigmatic glance. She put up with his weird humor. He could learn to tolerate hers.
“So much for the value of being a successful proof of concept,” Ambrose said.
“Evidently,” Talia said.
