Brett Battles - Sick

Ash tried to maintain his composure. “Just tell me where it is.”

“Out of the goodness of my heart? I don’t think so.”

Ash couldn’t hold back. He jumped up and slammed his fist against the wall. “Tell me where it is!”

“Oh, touchy. Who’d they take? Your girlfriend? Wife, maybe? Your mom?”

“Dr. Karp took my kids!”

Olivia stared at him, once more looking a bit surprised.

“Please,” he said. “Where is this place?”

“Even if I told you, do you think they’d just let you walk out with them?”

“I’ll do whatever it takes.”

She leaned back. “Really? Because that actually makes it interesting. Whatever it takes?”

“Yes.”

“Hold on,” Mike said. He pressed the button on the armrest. “Cut audio.”

“Audio off,” the voice from earlier said through the speaker.

Ash twisted around. “What?”

“She’s tried to make deals before,” Mike explained. “The one time someone actually took her up on it, it was a trap.”

“I don’t care. If it gets me close to my kids, that’s all I’ll need. I can take it from there.”

“If you’re dead, that’s not going to help your kids at all.”

“And if they’re dead, there’s no reason for me to live. Switch the sound back on.”

Reluctantly, Mike did.

“Can you tell me where my kids are or not?” Ash asked.

“Oh, you’re back. Mikey there telling you not to trust me?” Olivia said.

“Answer my question.”

She held up her hand and wagged a finger at him. “You know very well how this works. Trade-off.”

“There’s nothing I can do for you.”

“Isn’t there?”

He stared at her for a second. “You obviously have something in mind. What is it?”

Her upper lip curled in a faux pout. “I get so little entertainment in here, and you deny me even a little negotiation. Fine. Here’s all I want you to do. When you find the fabulous Dr. Karp, just before you put the bullet in his head, because I know that’s exactly what you want to do, I want you to tell him hi from me, and ask him why he gave up on me. One more thing. If he says anything after that, tell him he’ll be heading to the afterlife before me.”

“That’s it? That’s all you want?”

Her smile was back. “It would mean the world to me.”

“That, I can do.”

“I thought you probably could.”

The only thing that kept Ash from speeding down the mountain was the fear of skidding off the side and plunging down the slope. Not only would he and Chloe die, but he’d be effectively killing his children, too. Still, it was hard to keep from pressing the pedal to the floor.

“I’d wish you good luck,” Olivia had said after she gave them the location of NB7, “but I’m guessing you’re already too late.” She stood up and walked right up to the glass, directly in front of Ash.

“Stand away from the wall,” the voice from the speaker ordered. “Stand away from the wall.”

She locked eyes with Ash, her feet firmly planted where she was.

“Stand away from the wall.”

“But just because they’re dead,” she said, “doesn’t mean you can’t deliver my message to Dr. Karp.”

She obviously hoped that whether his children were dead or alive, Ash would want Dr. Karp to pay for what had been done to his family. And though he wasn’t about to accept the possibility that Brandon and Josie were gone, she’d been right.

The biggest problem now was that NB7 was in Eastern Oregon, 370 miles away from the Bluff.

The jet Matt had sent them west on wasn’t an option. Mike had checked. The plane was apparently somewhere in Texas, and wouldn’t be able to get to an airport close to them for nearly four hours. Add on the flight time, and the fact that the closest place they could land would still be an hour away from NB7, and the balance decidedly tipped in favor of driving.

Mike had suggested they get at least a few hours’ sleep at the Bluff before they left, but that was out of the question. Every minute saved could be the difference between Ash’s kids living or dying.

According to the car’s GPS, the trip should take them six and a half hours. Ash planned on slicing at least an hour to an hour and a half off that once they hit level ground.

“You going to hold the steering wheel like that the whole time?” Chloe asked.

He shot her a quick look. “What?”

“You’re gripping it like you want to tear it out of the dash. You’re wasting energy.”

He glanced at his hands. His fingers were wrapped around the wheel so tightly his knuckles had turned white. Now that he was aware of it, he could feel the stress running up his arms and into his shoulders. He forced himself to relax, then looked back at the road.

“I can drive, if you want,” she said. “I’m pretty good.” She paused. “I didn’t forget how, if you’re worried about that.”

“I’m fine,” he said.

“Sure, whatever you want. I’m here though, okay? ‘Cause, you know, I think you’d want to be at your max when we get there. But that’s your choice.”

He didn’t respond, but he knew she was right. It would be after midnight when they arrived and he’d need to be sharp. Maybe after they got out of the hills, he’d let her drive for a couple of hours while he slept.

“What did you think of Olivia?” Chloe asked.

Ash shrugged. “I just wanted the location from her. I didn’t think about her otherwise.”

“Last time I saw her she was mad as hell because we’d just caught her, like a cornered wild animal.” She paused. “She used to work with Dr. Karp on the experiments. Yours wasn’t the first, you know. Not even close. But probably their most successful, huh? Not only did they find something that worked, they found you and your kids, too.”

Without looking at her, he said, “What do you mean?”

“The experiments. You know about that, right? Matt told you?”

“He just said we were part of a test.”

“Oh. Well, then…maybe…I shouldn’t…I mean it’s not my place. Oh, dammit. Just forget it.”

The silence lasted for nearly a minute.

“He was going to tell me,” Ash said. “Back at the ranch, but I just wanted to focus on getting my kids. That first day, he started talking about things that were bigger than I could imagine, like I’d been caught up in some sort of…of…”

“Conspiracy?” she asked.

“Conspiracy,” he said, nodding. “That’s exactly what it sound like to me. Some nut-job theory like NASA faking the moon landings or the U.S. Government being behind 9/11.”

“NASA landed on the moon?” she asked.

He looked at her, his eyes narrowing in concern.

“I’m kidding,” she said. “I forgot about who I was, but things that I learned, things that weren’t about me, I remember most of those.”

“How is that possible?”

She shook her head and shrugged. “Maybe we can ask Dr. Karp when we see him.”

“He did this to you?”

“Not him directly. One of his colleagues.”

“Now we’re back to the conspiracy theory,” he said.

“Yeah, except this one isn’t a theory. It’s conspiracy reality.”

Once Ash had realized his kids were still alive, the only thing he’d concentrated on at the ranch was them. He hadn’t cared one way or the other what Matt and his friends were really involved in, but he was beginning to think maybe that was a mistake. Maybe he should care, maybe there was something to whatever it was they seemed to think was happening.

“Who are they?” he asked.

“Who are who?”

“These people you all seem to be fighting, who are they?”

“I…I don’t know. It’s not my place.”