J. Robb: Rapture in Death

Her gaze shifted to the monitor, frowned over the data being transmitted from Roarke's office. He was processing the VR specs now, she noted. "But you've already got Roarke digging. Not just on young Drew, but on the unit itself. I wasn't happy about that, but there are always ways around inconveniences." Her smile tilted up at the comers. "Roarke isn't as necessary as you believe. Who do you suppose will own all of this if something happened to him?"

She laughed again, pure delight, as Eve stared blankly.

"Why, you will, darling. It will all be yours, in your control, and therefore mine. Don't worry, I won't let you stay a widow long. We'll find someone for you. I'll choose him personally."

Terror froze her blood, iced her muscles, closed frigidly around her heart. "You made a unit for him."

"Just completed this afternoon. I wonder if he's tested it yet? Roarke is so efficient, and so personally interested in all of his holdings."

She shot a stream at Eve's feet, anticipating her. "Don't. I'll just stun you, and this will take longer."

"I'll kill you with my own hands." Eve forced air in and out of her lungs, ordered herself to think. "I swear it."

In his office, Roarke frowned over the data he'd converted. Missing something, he thought. What am I missing?

He rubbed the strain out of his eyes, sat back. He needed a break, he decided. Clear the mind, rest the eyes. Picking up the VR unit on his desk, he turned it over in his hands.

"You won't chance it. If you do, and I stun you, you'll never get to him in time. There's always the hope you can stop it, save him." Her smile spread again, derisively. "You see, I understand you, Eve, perfectly."

"Do you?" Eve asked, and instead of lunging forward, leaped back. "Lights out," she shouted, snatching for her weapon as the room pitched into darkness. She felt the slight sting as Reeanna's aim wavered, skimmed her shoulder.

Then she was down, blocked by the desk, and gritting her teeth against the pain. She'd rolled fast, but not well, and had come down hard on her bad knee.

"I'm better at this than you," Eve said calmly. But the fingers in her right hand tingled and shook, forcing her to switch the weapon to her left. "You're the amateur here. Ditch the weapon, and I might not kill you."

"Kill me?" Reeanna's voice was a hiss. "You've got too much cop programmed into you. Maximum force only when all other methods fail."

Near the door, Eve told herself, holding her breath, training her ears. To the right of it. "There's no one here but you and me. Who's to know?"

"Too much conscience. Don't forget, I know you. I've been in your head. You wouldn't be able to live with it."

Moving closer to the door. That's it, keep going. Just a little more. Try to get out, you bitch, and I'll drop you like a piece of spoiled meat.

"Maybe you're right. Maybe I'll just cripple you." Weapon gripped, Eve bellied around the desk.

The door opened, but instead of Reeanna rushing out, William started in. "Reeanna, what are you doing in the dark?"

Even as Eve leaped to her feet, Reeanna's finger twitched on the weapon, sending William's nervous system jittering.

"Oh, William, for God's sake." It was disgust rather than distress. As he started to topple, Reeanna ducked under him and threw herself at Eve. Her nails scraped viciously across Eve's breasts as both women crashed to the floor.

She knew where to aim. She'd tended every bump and bruise on Eve's body and now battered at them, twisted, jabbed. A knee rammed against that tender hip, a balled fist slammed into the wrenched knee.

Blind with pain, Eve shot out an elbow, heard the satisfactory crunch of cartilage as it connected with Reeanna's nose. Reeanna screamed, a high, female sound, and dug in with her teeth.

"Bitch." Sinking to the same level, Eve grabbed a handful of hair and yanked. Then, slightly ashamed of the lapse, she jammed her weapon under Reeanna's chin. "Breathe too hard, and I'll put you out. Lights on."

She was panting, bloody, her body singing with pain. She hoped there would be satisfaction later at seeing her opponent's beautiful face bruised, smeared with blood that continued to stream out of her broken nose. But for now there was too much fear.

"I'm putting you out anyway."

"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 fucker 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."