Mindsiege (Mindspeak #2)(79)

I sat up and rubbed my face in my hands. What was I doing? Jack, where are you?

Nothing. I felt lost without him, but I was thankful he wasn’t trapped along with me.

I couldn’t stop remembering Ty’s expression as he fell to the hard floor. Lifeless. Unplugged like a malfunctioning toy robot that had its batteries yanked out by a petulant child. No longer useful to the cold, heartless scientist who created him.

I didn’t even know if Briana had made it out okay. Was she still here somewhere?

I didn’t have time to consider that rhetorical question because just then Sandra entered the room, along with the obnoxious clinical neurophysiologist.

“Lexi, you will come with us, now.”

I scooted off the bed, stood, and crossed my arms across my chest. “No, not until I get what I need.”

“And what do you need, my dear?” Her condescending tone made me want to plant the entire load of my ring’s paralyzing drug into her jugular vein.

“I want reassurance that Dani will not be harmed. That’s what you promised.”

Sandra poked her head outside the door into the hallway. “Jonas, we will need you after all.”

Jonas rounded the corner. Worry swam in the trenches that formed across his forehead and in the “V” between his eyes. Don’t fight this, Lexi.

Don’t fight what, Jonas? I said his name in the same fatherly tone in which he’d said mine. Don’t patronize me. And don’t you dare assume I’m going to follow your every command just because you have the decency to walk in here with pity on your face. Look where I am.

“Force her to cooperate,” Sandra ordered Jonas.

Don’t make this harder than it has to be. I have to convince Sandra that she can trust me and that I’m following the commands coming to me through the tracker. Now, walk toward me.

Are you telling me that you’re getting commands, but you’re able to defy them? I asked.

Apparently—ever since Ty was removed from my head.

But you could still force me to do whatever it is you order?

Yes. Walk toward me, now. This time, his voice wove through my mind like silk ribbon, and I immediately stepped to him. The muscles in my legs tightened and my knees grew weak as I did exactly what he ordered, again with no control over my own body.

He slid his fingers around my upper arm. His touch was gentle. I almost welcomed it. I had felt so alone the last twenty-four hours.

“Great,” Sandra gestured toward the door. “Let’s go.”

The neurophysiologist led the way. Jonas squeezed my arm a little harder.

Did you find the server controlling the trackers? I asked.

Maybe.

Who do you think is pushing the buttons?

Sandra and Dr. DeWeese, for sure.

We followed the two doctors down the hallway. Sandra looked back just once. I was sure we had only two ways to escape this underground world: kill Sandra and Dr. DeWeese—the way they’d most likely killed my father; or destroy the trackers, and the computer server operating them, and run like hell.

I was pretty sure that I was not capable of murder, and I lacked hope that the other option was even remotely possible while under heavy security.

~~~~~

“What are those for?” I asked, eyeing the tangle of electrodes and wires snaking their way from some kind of computer.

“Dr. Mendez is going to perform an electroencephalogram, or an EEG, to monitor your brain activity.” Sandra stood in front of the computer and began typing. “Once you have submitted to this test, and I receive the reports and information I need, I will release your friend Dani.”

I didn’t believe a word this witch of a woman said. “What does that mean? What information? Information from the actual test?”

Sandra turned. “That and your father’s journals, of course. Lie down, please.”

I tensed. How was she planning to obtain information from Dad’s journals? I would die before handing them over. I crossed my arms. “No. You tell me exactly what you’re about to do to me, and I will consider cooperating.”

Sandra smiled—one of those really scary smiles that caused my body to shiver from the iciness of it. “Jonas.”

One word from her and he was inside my head. Lexi, you will climb up on that examination table. You will cooperate and allow the test.

Without thinking about it another second, I did as Jonas ordered. I hopped up on the exam table, as ordered, and lay back against the headrest. “What will this test tell you?”

“It will map the activity in your brain. That, along with the details of how your DNA was altered, and a few other pieces of information we’ll get from the journals…” Her voice trailed off.

Dad’s journals. The muscles in my neck and back tightened. I grasped at the edge of the leather chair where my hands rested. Jonas furrowed his brows, studying me. I had full control of my body and mind again. Jonas wasn’t keeping control, only exerting control when Sandra ordered it.

I said a silent prayer that I was successfully keeping my thoughts to myself. When I thought I could speak without incriminating myself, I asked Sandra, “Do you know where the journals are?” No one had ever found the hard copies of Dad’s research. I had assumed they’d been destroyed.

Dr. Mendez began placing the electrodes on my forehead, around my face, and in my hair. I wanted to fight it, but I knew I couldn’t. And I was still biding my time.