Paula Graves - Forbidden Touch

Suddenly, energy began to build in her fingertips and spread up her arm. It sizzled through her bloodstream, blooming in her chest. Her vision dimmed, her head spun, but she tightened her hold on Tom's arm and rode the sensations, more relieved by the return of her gift than pained by the darkness of the energy coursing through her.

"Excellent!" Grinkov laughed with delight. "Release!"

Iris waited until the others released hands before taking her hand from Tom's arm. He slumped forward and laid his head on his arms. While the flutter of sensations coming from him ebbed, a new, erratic buzz of energy stuttered through her.

"Let me show you what you did." Grinkov turned the monitor toward them. A grainy color picture flickered to life, a static shot of an electrical panel.

"That's the power plant." Hildi said.'That's what I saw."

"Indeed." Grinkov said, beaming at her, "Now watch this."

In the middle of a still image, a small red lever suddenly moved from On to Off. Hildi gasped.

Next to Iris, Bailey uttered a soft, "Oo-rah!"

Grinkov ejected the disk and slipped it into a jewel case. "I need to take this to the archives to back it up, I will send Halloran to escort you to your rooms to rest for the afternoon session."

He left the room, his steps light and fast. The fluttering energy Iris had been feeling began to fade, and she realized it had been coming from Grinkov.

"Escort us to our rooms?" Iris asked as his words sank in.

"We don't go anywhere without an escort." Bailey frowned.

"An afternoon session?" Tom lifted his head from the table. Dark circles shadowed his bloodshot eyes. Iris felt his pain like a headache throbbing between her temples. She moved closer and laid her hand on his arm drawing his pain into her.

"How do you do that, anyway?" Bailey asked.

"I don't know." Iris admitted.

She felt a sudden rush of anticipation and realized it wasn't coming from herself or anyone inside the room. A second later, the door to the conference room opened behind her and a low drawling voice asked.

"I'm looking for the dorms. Can anybody point me in the right direction?"

Iris twisted in her seat, recognizing the voice.

Maddox Heller stood in the doorway, his hand on the doorknob and a grin slashing dimples into his tinned cheeks. His gaze slid past hers, satisfaction glimmering in his eyes.

She rose to her feet. "I can show you."

"We're supposed to wait for Halloran." Hildi said.

Iris shrugged. "Big deal. He was going to take us to our rooms anyway. I'm just getting a head start."

Bailey stood up, "I'll come with."

Iris exchanged another look with Maddox as she and Bailey caught up with him at the door. He held the door politely for them, putting his hand briefly against the small of her back as he followed them out. In that touch, she felt a chaos of emotions, ranging from anxiety to relief.

"Here are the dormitory rooms." Bailey said as they reached the sleeping quarters, "These four rooms." She opened the first door.

"Do me a favor and clean mine first? I'd like to take a nap and I don't want to be disturbed later."

Maddox slanted a look at Iris but entered the room with Bailey. Iris surreptitiously showed him four fingers to let him know which room she was in, then went to her own quarters.

Three minutes later, a knock sounded on her door. She felt the now-familiar buzz of electric energy she'd come to recognize as Boris Grinkov. Taking comfort in knowing that Maddox was within shouting distance, she opened the door. "Dr.Grinkov."

"I told you and the others that you were to wait for Halloran to bring you back to your quarters."

She lifted her chin, "Why an escort? Are we prisoners?"

"Of course not." Grinkov said. "But we conduct experiments for private groups who do not wish their business to be known before they're ready to reveal their findings. We take our security and confidentiality seriously." Iris felt a sense of calm steal over her as Grinkov's anxiety ebbed. "I am sorry. You think our guidelines restrictive."

"No." she said with a smile. "I understand. I'll behave."

Grinkov smiled at her choice of words, "Halloran will be by later to escort you and the others to the cafeteria. Cook is preparing seared tuna steaks today. I'm sure you will find them delicious." He gave a curt nod and left the room.

Iris slumped on the edge of the bed, her head still throbbing from the residue of Tom Stanton's distress and her own moment of tension with Grinkov. How was she ever going to find Sandrine if her every move was controlled and choreographed?

She felt a sudden flood of warmth, laced with liberal bits of pure adrenaline, a second before the door opened and Maddox slipped inside. She jumped from the bed and met him halfway, wrapping her arm tightly around his waist and pressing her face against the front of his gray coveralls.

He stroked her hair. "Well, hello to you, too, sugar."

"What are you doing here?"

"Getting you out."

"I can't leave, l haven't found Sandrine yet."

He grinned at her, triumph in his eyes. "But I have."

She grabbed his arms. "Where?"

"In the infirmary."

Her heart dropped, "What's wrong with her?"

"I don't know." he admitted. "She's unconscious but her vitals look stable, and she's breathing on her own."

She bit back her panic. "We have to get her out of here."

"And we're gonna do that, sugar, but I have to tell you something first." The sensations coming from him darkened. "Another body washed up. Amanda Marquez."

"The other empath on the list?" Iris's knees wobbled. She found the edge of her bed and sat.

Maddox sat beside her. "You didn't feel my knee this morning, did you? Something's happened to your… what ever it is."

"It's back." she said, surprised by the deluge of relief that flowed from him at her words. "I think it was a temporal thing caused by…overexertion " She looked at him.

He arched one eyebrow. "Yeah?"

She flushed and forced her mind away from her memories of the previous night's pleasures."I've got to get to Sandrine."

"I can show you where the infirmary is. But there are cameras all along the hallways. We'll never escape notice."

"How did you get here unnoticed?"

"I'm on the cleaning crew. We're crawling all over this place. I'm practically invisible."

"Then we need to shut down the surveillance."

"I'd be happy to go all Mission: Impossible for you, maybe swoop down from the ceiling and knock out the security to this place, but I don't have time to set things up."

"Do you know where the security center is?"

He arched an eyebrow "Yeah, Quinn gave me a schematic."

"That may be all we need." She reached up and gave him a quick kiss on his cheek. "Wait here."

She headed for the door.

Iris returned to her room five minutes later with three other people, a man and two women. The tallest of the women, a raw boned redhead, stopped in the doorway, her hands on her hips, and asked, "What the hell is going on here?"

Iris closed the door carefully behind them. "Bailey, this is Maddox Heller. He's not really a cleaning guy. Maddox, this is Bailey, Hildi and Tom. They're in my test group."

Maddox stood and nodded toward the others. "What the hell is going on here, Iris?"

"We need to disable security, right? And you know where the security center is located, you said "

He nodded warily. "But-"

"Show us the schematic "

"Oh, my God, you want us to shutdown security." Bailey said, moving farther into the room. Her eyes lit up. "Well, it's about damned time! This place is a freaking prison!"

Maddox looked at Iris, the hair on the back of his neck prickling. Who were these people, really? How did she know they could be trusted? Iris met his gaze with calm assurance, her eyes asking him to trust her. He forced himself to relax.