Rapture in Death (In Death #4)(97)

“No, you won’t.” Reeanna’s voice was steely calm, and her lips curved into a wide, brilliant smile. “I will,” she said, and twisted the wrist of the weapon hand Eve pinned until the point rested against the side of her neck. “I hate cages.” And smiling, she fired.

“Jesus, Jesus Christ.” She scrambled up while Reeanna’s body still shuddered, shoved William over, snatched out his pocket ‘link. He was breathing, but she didn’t much give a damn.

She started to run.

“Answer me, you answer me!” she shouted at the ‘link as she fumbled it on. “Roarke,” she ordered, “main office. Answer me, goddamn it.” Then she bit back a scream as the transmission refused to go through.

Line currently in use. Please wait or retry momentarily.

“Bypass, you son of a bitch. How do you bypass with this thing?” She increased her pace to a limping gallop, not even aware she was weeping.

Footsteps pounded toward her in the breezeway, but she didn’t even pause.

“Dallas, holy God.”

“Back there.” She raced past Feeney, barely heard his frantic questions through the roaring sea of terror in her head. “Back there. Peabody, with me. Hurry.”

She hit the elevator, pounded on the call control. “Hurry, hurry.”

“Dallas, what’s happened?” Peabody touched her shoulder, was jerked off. “You’re bleeding. Lieutenant, what’s the status?”

“Roarke, oh God, oh God, please.” Tears were streaming, scalding her, blinding her. Panic sweat flooded out of her pores, soaking her skin. “She’s killing him. She’s going to kill him.”

In reaction, Peabody pulled her weapon as they rushed through the opening doors of the elevator. “Top floor, east wing,” Eve shouted. “Now, now, now!” She all but threw the ‘link at Peabody. “Get this f**ker to bypass.”

“It’s damaged. It’s been dropped or something. Who’s got Roarke?”

“Reeanna. She’s dead. Dead as Moses, but she’s killing him.” She couldn’t breathe, couldn’t. Her lungs wouldn’t hold air. “We’ll stop him. Whatever she told him to do to himself, we’ll stop him.” She turned wild eyes on Peabody. “She’s not taking him.”

“We’ll stop him.” Peabody was through the doors with her before they fully opened.

Eve was still faster, even injured, she gained speed through terror. She wrenched at the door, cursed security, and slammed her hand down on the palm plate.

She all but ran over him as he stepped to the threshold.

“Roarke.” She burrowed into him, would have climbed inside him if she could. “Oh God. You’re all right. You’re alive.”

“What’s happened to you?” He tightened his grip on her as she shuddered.

But she was jerking back, grabbing his face in her hands, staring into his eyes. “Look at me. Did you use it? Did you test the VR unit?”

“No. Eve — “

“Peabody, drop if he moves wrong. Call the MTs. We’re taking him in for a brain scan.”

“The hell you are, but go ahead and call them, Peabody. She’s going to the health center this time, if I have to knock her unconscious.”

Eve stepped back, fighting for breath as she carefully measured him. She couldn’t feel her legs, wondered why she could still stand upright. “You didn’t use it.”

“I said I didn’t.” He pushed a hand through his hair. “It’s aimed at me this time, is it? I should have seen it.” He turned away, glanced over his shoulder as Eve lifted her weapon. “Oh, put that damn thing down. I’m not suicidal. I’m pissed. She slipped it right by me. It just started to click five minutes ago. Mindoc. Mind doctor,” he elaborated. “That’s the name she used in her game playing. She’s still using it, still playing. Mathias had dozens of transmissions to her in the year before he died. And I took a close look at the data report on the unit. The one they just gave me, and the stats from the files. They hadn’t buried those deeply enough.”

“She knew you’d find it. That’s why she — ” Eve broke off, sucked in air that she could hear whistle eerily in her swimming head. “That’s why she personalized a unit for you.”

“I might have gotten around to testing it if I hadn’t been interrupted.” He thought of Mavis, nearly smiled. “I doubt Ree put much effort into altering data. She knew I trusted her and William.”

“It wasn’t William — not voluntarily.”

He only nodded, looked at her ruined shirt, the bright red splashes. “Did she bloody you?”

“It’s mostly hers.” She hoped. “She didn’t want to be taken in.” Eve blew out a breath. “She’s dead, Roarke. Self-terminated. I couldn’t stop her. Maybe I didn’t want to. She told me — the unit, your unit.” Her breath was wheezing again, hitching, skipping. “I thought — I didn’t think I’d be in time. I couldn’t make the ‘link work, and I couldn’t get here.”

She didn’t hear Peabody close the door to give her privacy. She didn’t care about privacy. She only continued to stare, blind now, and shudder. “I couldn’t,” she said again. “I stalled her, all that time I was stalling her, building my case, and you could have been — “