Kate Donovan - Parallel Lies

“My flu symptoms?”

“Right.” Zack motioned toward the wing chair. “Sit for a minute. This is a lot to take in, and I need you to concentrate.”

She nodded and sat down. “He used the drug on me, but it made me sick.”

“Right. But it worked enough to allow him to plant a basic suggestion in your mind. The suggestion that you and he stayed up all night talking about everything under the sun, or some such crap.”

“Right.”

“And he may have planted other suggestions, as well. So I need to ask you something. It’s going to make you mad, but just try to understand. Okay?”

She nodded.

“Is your weapon really outside in the car?”

“Yes. Why?”

“Do you have any feelings of animosity toward Theo? Feelings you can’t explain?”

“No. I have some toward you,” she added with a halfhearted smile. “But I can explain those.”

Zack laughed. “Fair enough.”

The light moment vanished quickly for Sabrina. “You think he might try to use me and Shelby to hurt Perimeter? That’s sort of far-fetched, don’t you think?”

“Yes. Just be aware. If you have feelings you don’t understand—urges that seem uncharacteristic—report them to me immediately.”

“I will. I promise.”

“And you should probably get some tests done. Tonight or tomorrow.” He grimaced, then explained, “For diseases. Pregnancy. Whatever.”

“I didn’t sleep with him, thanks to the vomiting. It was a definite mood killer.”

“Just the same…”

“I didn’t sleep with him,” she repeated, annoyed at the stubborn suggestion. Then her shoulders slumped. “Obviously, Shell did. But I’m sure she used protection.”

“Good.”

“It’s kidnapping, right? I mean, he drugged her and made her believe she’s in love with him. That’s the only reason she went away with him, so it wasn’t really consensual.”

“It’s kidnapping,” Zack agreed.

“And now he’s out there somewhere, playing with her head. Trying to get information. Or torturing her as revenge for something Dad did to him. That’s what you’re saying, right?”

“He’s not torturing her. It’s not his style. But otherwise, yeah. He’s messing with her head.”

Sabrina turned away, her heart pounding with confusion. “This is so much worse than anything I ever imagined. I thought I was overreacting. I thought you’d say he was just a romantic fool. Or at worst, a gigolo or something, trying to get at the trust fund.”

Spinning to face Theo, she insisted, “We hardly spent any of the money. We saved it for the day we could come back. So we could buy back Dad’s share of the company. We didn’t know you needed it. Please take it back—”

“Hey!” Theo silenced her with a hug. “Look around. Does it seem like I’m hurting? We had a cash flow problem for a year or so, but that’s behind us. Thanks to Zack. He got us on our feet. Found us a client who’s richer than Midas. We’re fine. I promise.”

With a wink he added, “Everyone knows I make my real money in real estate anyway. Perimeter’s just a hobby. So give me a smile and let’s not talk about money any more.”

Sabrina squeezed his arm, then resumed her questioning. “Tell me about John Derringer. What did Dad do to him that was so terrible?”

Zack gave her a curious look. “How much do you know about the Zenner mess?”

“The Zenner mess? Do you mean, my father’s murder? I’d like to think I know everything about it.”

“Let’s hear it, then.”

Sabrina shrugged. “Pluto Zenner assassinated a Perimeter client during some meeting in the Canary Islands. To salvage the company’s reputation, Dad helped the CIA track him down, and Pluto was killed resisting arrest. Then Pluto’s son Adonis came after Dad and blew him up.”

“Right.” Zack’s eyes clouded. “What you probably don’t know is that John Derringer was responsible for the breach in security that led to the assassination in the Canary Islands. It was John’s first big assignment for Perimeter, and he blew it. His ego took a serious beating.”

Sabrina was beginning to understand. “Dad fired him?”

“No. Sully wanted to give him another chance. But John’s pride got in the way. He quit in a huff. Disappeared for a few months, then surfaced as a petty criminal, using the knowledge he got from Sully’s training to penetrate various security systems and pull some creative heists. His way of saying he was just as good as us, I guess.”

“A disgruntled employee from five—no, six—years ago?” Sabrina shook her head. “It doesn’t make sense. Why would he wait so long to come after us?”

“That’s the question,” Zack agreed.

She covered her face with her hands again, but this time the gesture wasn’t one of despair. Instead she needed to blot out Zack and Theo for the moment. To return to her training. Her roots. Her legacy of strength from her father.

Fear doesn’t hurt people, Brie. Panic does. It’s an agent’s worst enemy. Learn to control it.

“Okay,” she said finally. “DT3. You said it’s got something to do with hypnosis, right?”

“It’s got everything to do with hypnosis,” Zack confirmed. “You’ve probably heard that a person can’t be hypnotized without their consent, right? And that you can’t make them do anything under hypnosis that goes against their grain? Well, DT3 changes all that.”

He pulled a chair over and sat directly in front of Sabrina. “It’s what they call a hypnotropic drug. It gives the hypnotist tremendous power. With it, he can put the subject into such a deep trance, even without their consent, that they’re virtually his slave. He can extract information from their memory or he can conceal it there. He can password-protect it so that he’s the only one who can ever retrieve it. He can plant powerful post-trance suggestions, like the one Derringer gave you.” Leaning closer, he muttered, “It’s a goddamned menace.”

“I can’t believe I’ve never heard of it.”

“Perimeter developed it. But after a few tests, your father and Theo were so alarmed by its potential, they abandoned the project.”

“But Derringer has it?”

Zack nodded. “We were both trained to use it. But the formula stayed with Sully. I guess John took a supply with him when he left. We’re probably lucky he hasn’t sold it to some foreign agency by now.”

Sabrina looked over toward Theo. “You think he’s planting ugly suggestions in her mind? Making her do creepy things?”

“That’s unlikely,” Zack protested. “My guess is he wants information. Something he thinks you girls learned during all those years with Sully. Maybe even some secret information Sully hid in your minds—”

“My father would never hide things in our minds!”

Zack flushed. “Take it easy. I’m just brainstorming here. If you can’t take it, you should go lie down or something.” He stood and turned to Theo, as though dismissing Sabrina. “Can you get Marietta to make copies of all Connor’s faxes for me? And all the reports from his crew for the last three months. Derringer probably surveilled the girls for weeks before he made his move. Maybe there’s something in the early reports we can use.”

“Wait!” Sabrina jumped up and confronted him. “Let me help.”

“You can help by staying out of the way. We do this for a living, you know. Go upstairs and rest for a while. If there’s anything to report, you’ll be the first to know.”

Sabrina wanted to reach down his arrogant throat and pull out his tonsils, but counseled herself to stay calm. He saw her as a civilian. Fine. She could use that to her advantage. Wasn’t that what her father would want her to do?

“I am a little beat,” she said with an apologetic smile. “Give me a few minutes to splash some water on my face, okay? But after that, I really want to help.” Heading for the double doors, she added over her shoulder, “I’ll be back in five minutes. Don’t make any decisions until I get back, okay?”