Michael Prescott - In Dark Places

"I don't have any pictures of naked ladies."

"Some cheesecake shots of you and your daughter would do."

Her saw her mouth tighten. "Justin"

"I'm just talking, Doc. Little Meg Cameron amp; How old she be? Fifteen? Sixteen? That's a damn good age."

"We're not going to talk about this."

"Hope I didn't creep you out with my phone call. I just wanted you to know how much your daughter means to me. Some nights she's the only thing that keeps me going amp;"

She got up, tossing the inkblot cards on her desk. Her hands were shaking. "All right, forget the preliminaries. We'll move on to the MBI."

Gray suppressed a smile. The doc wasn't the only one who could get inside a person's head and push their buttons. And he didn't need no fancy machine.

She attached the electrodes, pulled down the window shades, killed the overhead light, set the helmet on his head. First time he'd worn it, he thought it was heavy as a brick, but he was used to it now.

She put the headphones on him, like always. He wished he could hear some raucous metal tunes on these things and not just the doc's calm, comforting PA-system voice.

"Justin?" she said, the query coming over the phones. "Do you hear me?"

"Ten-four and roger that, big mama," he said in the general direction of the stalk mike protruding from the headset.

When she swiveled away from him to adjust the computer gear against the wall, he knew it was time to make his move.

Timing was critical. Once the helmet was switched on, he'd be unable to act. Those magnetic fields did something funny to his head, got him all messed up. It was like he wasn't even in the room anymore, like he was time-traveling or tripping on some really hard drugs. In the minute or two it would take her to make the final adjustments to the gear, he had to work himself free.

He twisted his right hand sideways, crooking it at the wrist, and guided the screwdriver toward the strap's metal buckle. The idea was to jam the screwie's blade under the tongue of the buckle and lever it up.

He glanced at the doc, still programming the machine. In their first session she'd explained to him that the helmet contained a whole bunch of magnetic coils. She could turn some of them off, turn others on, basically customize the helmet for each user. She liked to tweak the settings each time.

Gray eased the tip of the screwdriver under the buckle, and pushed up on the metal tongue.

"Okay. Ready to begin?"

He froze, waiting for the doc to notice the screwdriver in his hand. Luckily, the room was dark, illuminated only by the glow of the computer screens. Besides, she still hadn't looked at him. She was studying the readouts on the monitors.

"Justin? Ready?"

He needed to buy time, release the buckle.

"Hey, Doc, I'm sorry if I offended you a couple minutes ago." He tried again to pry open the buckle. "I was just, you know, playing."

"You're always playing, aren't you?" Her voice was flat.

"It's my nature. See, I"

She cut him off. "Let's get started."

He wanted to say something more, but abruptly the helmet switched on.

He felt the familiar sensation of invisible claws hooking onto his scalp and dragging his forehead up under the helmet. There were blind spots in both of his eyes. The doc had explained that the voodoo current she passed through his noodle messed up his octopus areanot octopus amp; occipital amp; something like that.

His concentration began to fail. He was losing focus.

God damn it, he was so close.

He thought he could still do it, could still unbuckle the strap. He only had to hold on to awareness and self-control for another few seconds. He tensed his body, fighting the effects of the current.

"Justin? You seem to be resisting."

"Maybe I don't wanna be your play-toy no more, Doc."

His fingers jabbed the screwdriver against the buckle.

"You're not a toy, and this isn't a game. Now I want you to relax. Take deep, slow breaths."

The buckle shifted, coming partly undone. He strained to finish the job. But his fingers, damp with sweat, couldn't get purchase on the screwdriver.

"This isn't working," Robin said, still watching the screen. "Your muscular tension is high. So is your heart rate. I'm going to boost the appliance's output a little. That should induce relaxation."

"You're gonna force me to cooperate? How's that any different from tying me down for some of the old electric shock treatment?"

That stopped her. "I don't want you to feel I'm mistreating you."

"Well, I do." He'd gotten hold of the buckle at last. "I feel damn mistreated. Doc I'm like Nicholson in Cuckoo's Nest , you know? I'm getting fuckin' lobotomized here."

The tongue of the buckle lifted another few degrees. One more good push, and he could snap it back, unhook himself.

"Actually," she said, "I don't think it will be necessary to adjust the output. You seem to be settling down."

He didn't know where the fuck she got that idea. His heart was still rabbiting in his chest.

He flexed his wrist, jamming the screwdriver against the metal tongue, and the buckle popped open.

His right hand was free.

The rest was easy. Just reach over and unbuckle his left wrist. Had to do it fast, before the doc had time to see what was going down. Even in the dark, she might see that his hand was loose. If she yelled, the hack in the waiting room would come running.

He tried to reach across his body with his free hand amp;

Couldn't do it. Couldn't move.

Oh, hell . The doc had been right, after all. Goddamned machine was taking control of him. He'd fought it off as long as he could.

Now his head was going all ker-blooey, and his eyes were ticking back and forth like he was watching a Ping-Pong game. His hands felt warm and tingly, and his arms were a hundred yards long, his whole body stretching out like an elastic band.

He felt his fingers splay. The screwdriver dropped to the floor, its fall muffled by the carpet.

"Justin, can you hear me?"

The question reached him from far off. He forgot whose voice it was. His mother's, maybe. Or was it Susan Miller, the one with Hamlet in her backpack?

"Justin amp;?"

No, it was the doc. He was in her office, and she was using him as her personal lab rat. There was something he'd been planning to do about that, but he couldn't remember. He was tired amp;

"Justin?"

"Yeah." He heard himself answer, but it was like somebody else was talking and he was only eavesdropping.

"I want you to relax, Justin."

He was relaxed. He was limp.

"I want you to visit the beach. You know the spot I mean."

"I know."

In their first session he'd told her about a place up the coast, around Pismo Beach, where he'd stopped one time. It was so peaceful there.

"I want you to go there. Are you there, Justin?"

"I'm there amp;"

He was, too. That was the weirdness of it. He was really fucking there. Oh, sure, part of him was still in a straight-back chair in an air-conditioned office, but another part of him was sitting cross-legged on the sand watching gulls swoop over the breaking waves. The air was misty, damp, but some sun was getting through. He breathed in the good salt smell of the ocean.

"Just sit on the beach and be at rest."

"At rest," he said, his voice merging with the sigh of the surf.

Something had been worrying him, but he no longer remembered what. Didn't matter anyhow. Nothing mattered.

It was a beautiful day at the beach. He was happy.

He was free.

Robin let Gray adjust to the trancelike state initiated by the bilateral magnetic fields. In the dim light cast by the computer screens, she could see that his eyes were half-closed, his mouth agape. His breathing was slow and regular.