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We need to get out of here. The link was the only way to communicate with her securely. Mason was quite sure the room was being electronically monitored, both visually and auditorily.
“Dr. Payne, if I’m going to work on applying my sequencing theories to your case, I’ll need to see just how badly you’re hurt.”
He could feel the exhaustion and headache that trying to use the link too strongly and too frequently was causing her. In his weakened state, he was having trouble maintaining the link himself. As they weren’t physically bonded—yet—it would tax them until that transition took place. It was a bit different for him. He’d been using the link to communicate all his life with his twin. They could go days without actually speaking before it bothered either of them. He rather imagined this was Emery’s first time.
“Thank you, Dr. Smoak. They haven’t told me much, but I can tell I’m in pretty rough shape.”
“That you are,” she said calmly. “From the little I can observe, and that Kam was able to tell me before being called away, I think I might be able to help. I’m not sure why NLGP wants to help you. They believe that you stole their intellectual property. Did you do that, Dr. Payne?”
“Am I dying?” he asked.
“I think you were, but NLGP has nursed you back to health. I don’t think anyone wants to see you die. I do think NLGP will want back whatever you took, but that seems only fair to me.”
“They did this,” he rasped. Maybe he should have played along, but he needed to know she realized the danger they were in.
She dropped the placid mask from her eyes and stared at him with a keen awareness of the circumstances, but then played dumb.
“That’s ridiculous, Dr. Payne. NLGP doesn’t go around trying to hurt or kill their employees. That’s just not good business.”
She was right. They needed to make their captors believe Emery was the good little soldier who didn’t believe in the evil corporate villain.
“You’re a fool, Dr. Smoak. Open your eyes. Look around you. NLGP has all kinds of secrets to hide. They’re only keeping me alive until they find out how much damage I’ve done to them.”
He could hear the door from the hallway open and Emery released his hand, moving hers effortlessly back into her lap.
“I see you’re awake, Dr. Payne.” Kam Perkins’ voice was cheerful, but Mason could see past the façade to the ruthless, cunning woman beneath. Kam examined the monitors and the IV line. “Can you tell me how you’re feeling?”
“Like I’ve been shot, tromped on, dragged over the snow and ice, and flown back to Iceland while some guy who could give Frankenstein a run for his money pulled out bullets and shrapnel before stitching me up, all without the benefit of anesthesia,” growled Mason.
“When we found you, you were near death. We hadn’t prepared to find you half dead, abandoned by your companions. We also underestimated your lethality, Dr. Payne.” Kam turned to Emery. “Dr. Payne killed four of the men we sent after him.”
“Only after they tried to kill me,” he returned.
“Only when you refused to surrender to a superior force.”
“Dr. Payne? Dr. Perkins? Lobbing accusations at each other isn’t going to do anyone any good. I’d like to take a look at Dr. Payne’s medical records before agreeing to help. I have to say, all of this makes me uneasy, so unless I’m convinced that my theoretical therapies might help, and I have Dr. Payne’s full and informed consent, I’m going to have to ask to be returned to the surface so I can consider my future with NLGP.”
‘Full and informed consent.’ That was an interesting way to put it. It was the hallmark of transitioning. Most shifter species would not turn another species or human unless the one being turned had been fully informed and given their consent unless it was a matter of life and death.
“I don’t think that will be an issue, Emery,” said Perkins. She turned back to Mason. “We both know you took valuable and proprietary information that you had no right to. The company is prepared to be magnanimous and forgive and forget, provided you are willing to get back on the team and work in solidarity with us. I’ve assured my superiors that you have always been a team player and a leader who inspires others. There’s no reason we can’t put this little bit of unpleasantness behind us and move forward, is there?”
There was every reason he was never going to do that, but he had the distinct impression that Emery was trying to buy time; trying to give him more time to heal. He called forth the same sense of outrage and anger he’d felt from his brother Carson. He didn’t know what it was that Carson had found, but even if he had, he doubted he’d know what it meant.
“Why would I help you? We both know I have evidence of the heinous and unethical experimentation you’re conducting—cloning, trying to create super soldiers,” he sneered at Perkins.
Perkins deliberately upped his sedation. “You’re wrong Dr. Payne. What you are saying is untrue. I don’t believe when you left you thought anything of the sort. If you had, you’d have gone to New York to one of the twenty-four-hour news stations and made your findings public. But you didn’t do that. What you did do was steal proprietary and trademarked information, which you probably planned to sell to the highest bidder.”
Perkins looked at Emery. “You can see he’s delusional. We’re hoping whatever weakness in his genetic makeup that made him lash out at us can be healed.”
Emery nodded. “It’s most definitely a possibility.”
“Good. Then we can count on you?” Perkins asked Emery.
“Tentatively, I would say of course, but I do want to review his full, unredacted medical records.”
“Unredacted?” asked Perkins.
“Yes, unless I know everything about his medical condition it would be too risky to try my gene therapy—after all it has yet to have any clinical trials. I would never want to see as brilliant a mind as Dr. Payne’s snuffed out or compromised when I might be able to save him.” She laid her hand on his. “Try not to worry, Dr. Payne. I’ll be doing everything I can to bring you back to your old self.”
