Arc Angel (31 page)

But she’d stumbled on the second part, barely able to get the words out: what had happened to Matthews, Dr. Harris and Bryce? Had he hurt them? Her mind refused to go to the “K” word.

She forced herself to meet Mr. Brown’s gaze again, even though the cold reptilian stare made her skin crawl.

“I need your help on a little project I’m working on.”

Miranda tried to recapture her earlier bravado, despite the way her stomach sank at the way he’d avoided the second half of her question, about her friends.

“No thank you.”

“Don’t you even want to hear what the project is?”

“Not really. I know it can’t be anything good, anything legal. And despite what the police currently think about me, I don’t break the law.”

Mr. Brown sat back and steepled his hands in front of him, staring at her as if she were a particularly fascinating experiment in a lab. Probably something involving a small, helpless mouse.

“You seem to be much more confident than I was led to believe. Interesting.”

“Being harassed by a psychopath must have had a spine-stiffening effect on me. I’m not working for you.”

Mr. Brown examined her for another minute before continuing as if she hadn’t spoken.

“I thought you might be a bit… reluctant. And that’s where your friends come in. Well, one friend in particular.”

Without taking his eyes off her, Mr. Brown gestured for the man behind him to come forward.

“John, please show Ms. James our special guest.”

John swung the computer monitor around to fully face Miranda, then punched a few keys until an image of a room appeared on the screen. The video was dark and grainy enough that Miranda could barely make out a chair with someone sitting in it. But the minute the shadowy figure moved, she knew instantly who it was. Bryce.

“Let him go.”

“I assure you, Ms James, that Mr. Campion is unharmed. And I have no intention of harming him as long as you cooperate.”

“Then why is he there? And where is there?”

“He’s nearby, and he’s what I like to call leverage. I won’t hurt him, but I also won’t let him have any of his precious little pills.”

Miranda pulled herself together, but the moment of gaping had given her away and she knew it.

“Oh yes, I know all about Mr. Campion’s condition. As a matter of fact, I know all about everything to do with Mr. Campion. Once I realized his connection to you, to Arc Angel, I made it my job to learn everything about both of you. Well, not technically
my
job. I have excellent research staff. I believe you’ve met Mr. Brooks. A bit more ostentatious than I usually prefer, but he is tenacious, isn’t he?”

Gavin Brooks, ace reporter, stepped from the shadows in the corner of the room and gave a little bow, his wide smile mocking her.

Miranda couldn’t find the mental energy to even acknowledge Brooks. Mr. Brown’s words rolled over her like a raging river, threatening to drag her under at every turn. He had Bryce and could let him die at any minute.

“What about Matthews and Dr. Harris?”

Mr. Brown waved his hand dismissively again. The mannerism was really starting to irritate her.

“They are not necessary to my plans. Though it is thanks to the enthusiastic Dr. Harris that I was able to learn so much about you, Ms. James. His tests were quite thorough.”

Dammit, she’d known it wasn’t safe for him to send those tests to the lab, Jane Doe or not.

“His tests were also very helpful in putting the finishing touches on this.”

Mr. Brown held up the silver pen-shaped object she’d seen in the clinic.

“I’m sure you recognize this. But you probably aren’t aware of its versatility. I’ve been developing it for a number of years, thinking that it might hold the key to my little project, but I didn’t realize its true value until you—or shall I say Arc Angel?—appeared.”

He tapped the object against his palm as he continued. Miranda’s gaze remained fixed to the gleaming metal, even as her thoughts continued to whirl.

“Its original purpose was to manipulate energy, specifically electricity. And as you’ve seen firsthand, it does an excellent job of extinguishing power. It’s basically a super resistor, making the electric charge run so slowly that it shuts off completely. We were also able to adapt it to block power. Any attempt to pull in electricity is met with enormous resistance, making it impossible. And it’s quite stylish, don’t you agree?”

He pointed to Miranda’s wrist. Miranda stared at him, confused, and then looked down at the hand resting in her lap. A thin silver bangle encircled her wrist. She couldn’t believe she hadn’t noticed it. She moved to pull it off, only to have Mr. Brown point his dampener at her.

“Ah ah. Don’t touch. I can certainly drain the building’s power with this if I need to, but it would be such a hassle, and you still wouldn’t achieve anything. So leave the bracelet on like a good girl.”

Miranda gave up and lowered both arms back onto the chair’s armrests, seething inside.

“I hope you like it. I had it made especially for you. I knew I’d need to talk to you at some point, and I didn’t want you to be… distracted.”

Worrying that your friends might be dead—soon or already—and that you were about to be forced into a crime spree qualified as a little more than distracting, but Miranda didn’t bother protesting. She knew the person Mr. Brown didn’t want distracted was himself.

“But as powerful as this little beauty is as a dampener, it was never as capable at generating power, at least not in a controllable way. And that’s where you come in, as does your friend Mr. Campion.” He tapped the computer monitor, still showing Bryce in the chair.

Miranda’s blood boiled.

Hang in there, Bryce. I’ll come up with something to get us out of this.

“You’ll stay dampened until I need you to ‘go live.’ And once you’re powered-up, you won’t dare double cross me, unless you want Mr. Campion to have an unfortunate accident.”

“Don’t you dare hurt him!”

“I said I wouldn’t, and I won’t. But if he happens to get worked up and not have his pills nearby to save him, well that’s certainly not my fault. Poor Mr. Campion will simply have succumbed to his unfortunate medical condition.”

“You bastard.”

“Your friend will be fine as long as you do what I want.”

“Which is what?” she spat through gritted teeth.

“Ideally, I’d like to learn even more about you. I know quite a bit thanks to Mr. Brooks and John, but I always say that you can’t really know anyone without talking to them face-to-face. Unfortunately, I’m in a bit of hurry.”

Thank god. At least she wouldn’t have to play show and tell with the psychopath.

“You may have heard of the museum’s recent acquisition. It’s an ancient artifact, and I want it. It was moved to its permanent position today in the East Wing, and I need your help getting it before the exhibit opens tomorrow night.”

He wanted her to steal a chunk of rock? What the hell? She knew she’d heard about this damn artifact somewhere recently but couldn’t remember where.

“Why can’t you hire a normal burglar to get it for you? Why do you need me?”

“Let’s just say that I like to be efficient, which is something you definitely are. Normally it would take a team of experts to handle this job, even with my little electrical toy. And make no mistake, I had a team lined up. But then you came to our attention, first through John hiring you to run a security audit for Tech Corp and then through the news story connecting you to Arc Angel. Miranda, I don’t believe in coincidence. I knew I had to have you for this job. You can handle the regular security access, the guards and the special systems in place on the item all by yourself. Faster, easier and with a much smaller margin of error. Besides, I’d really like you to see the artifact, up close and personal. I’m eager to get your impression.”

Even for a crazy person, this guy was crazy. He wanted her opinion on the ancient artifact she was going to steal for him? Right. She had so much to contribute to a discussion on archaeology.

“Oh, and Ms. James, should the safety of Mr. Campion not be enough motivation, I want to point out the other benefit of you successfully retrieving the artifact on your own. If something goes wrong, though I doubt it will, it should be very easy for the police to put the pieces together and determine that you are the responsible party. After all, they’ve already seen several examples of your work, the last one on video from your friend Mr. Brooks.”

So that’s why Kate had been sent the video! Mr. Brown didn’t want the police to arrest her yet, so he’d only sent it to Kate, but he wanted it available as evidence if he needed a fall guy for the museum robbery. Great. That really put the icing on the cake, didn’t it. If she didn’t break the law and her own moral code, Bryce would die and she’d go to jail. Fantastic.

“Now, if you’d like to do this the Miranda James, Security Expert, way, John has set up a workstation for you in the office next door. Additionally, I’ve taken the liberty of obtaining an ID badge for you—some low level gift shop employee, I believe. Or if you’d rather bypass all that and charge in there as Arc Angel, that would be fine too. Whichever way you choose, you have until 6 a.m., when the first shift of employees comes to work. That should leave you plenty of time. I’m sure I don’t need to remind you of what’s at stake here?” He inclined his head toward the monitor.

Miranda searched desperately for a way to stall. If only she had a little more time, surely she could think of something that would help Bryce. Bryce…

“I need to see him,” she declared. “I have to be sure he’s really okay.”

Mr. Brown sighed.

“I assure you, that’s hardly necessary. Mr. Campion is unharmed.”

“Why should I believe you? This video could be from hours ago. Who knows if he’s still safe.” She sat back in her chair and folded her arms across her chest. “I’m not going to do your precious job unless I can see Bryce.”

Mr. Brown sighed again, louder this time.

“I thought you might react this way. It’s why I decided to keep Mr. Campion nearby. Fine. Five minutes. John, please escort her.”

She stood before the other man could take her arm.

“I can walk on my own, thank you.”

“And Ms. James, I’ll take that from you now.” Mr. Brown pointed to the silver bangle on her wrist. “I want to be sure you’re back up to full power before running my little errand. But don’t get any bright ideas, so to speak. It should take at least a half hour before you’re at full strength again, and all my men carry the regular model, just in case.”

She yanked the bracelet off and threw it right in Mr. Brown’s smug face, her frustration giving it force. Unfortunately, the man had reflexes like a cat and snagged the bracelet before it made impact.

“There’s no need to be childish, Ms. James.” He slipped the bracelet into his pocket. “Be assured that we’ll hold on to this for you until after you’ve completed your task. Now if you’ll excuse me…”

The son of a bitch was dismissing her like she was his secretary keeping him from getting ready for his next meeting. But of course he didn’t have more work to do, she did.

John gestured for her to step through the office doorway. Simmering inside, she did so. He guided her to the elevator bank, where he pressed the down button. The elevator doors parted instantly, and they stepped on. Without trying to shield the buttons, John pressed 15, and the elevator started its descent.

The elevator bumped to a stop, and Miranda’s stomach experienced more than the usual dip. She still didn’t have a plan or even an idea of how to get Bryce out of here.

The bell dinged, and the doors slid silently open. Miranda stepped out and strode down the hallway toward the large man guarding one of the closed doors.

“Let me in,” she demanded.

The man looked over her head at her silent shadow. John must have given some sign of approval, because the man unlocked the door and stepped aside.

“Five minutes, Ms. James,” John reminded her in a soft voice. “And please don’t try anything.” He dug in his jacket pocket and pulled out a now-familiar metal rod.

She nodded and let herself into the room.

“Miranda! You’re alright.” Bryce stood and stepped toward her, arms outstretched.

She ran to him so that he wouldn’t have to exert himself. She flung her arms around his neck and let him pull her close.

“Thank god you’re okay. I was so worried,” he said against her hair.

“And you’re okay? You’re feeling okay?”

“I’m fine, at least for now. The son of a bitch took my pills, but I’ll make do without them.”

“Do you know what happened to Dr. Harris or Matthews?”

“No. The bastards wouldn’t tell me anything about either of them. What about you?”

“No. Mr. Brown only said that they were not necessary. Bryce, I’m worried. What if he…”

“Stop. We can’t think that way. We have to believe that they’re okay. Maybe ‘not necessary’ just means that he didn’t need them here.”

“Like he needs us.” Miranda leaned back to look up at Bryce. “He wants me to steal the museum’s new artifact.”

Bryce pulled back and slumped down into his chair.

“And he needs me as leverage. Of course.”

Miranda crouched down in front of him, grasping both his hands in hers.

“Yes. He threatened to hurt you if I don’t do it. Well, more accurately, he threatened to not help you if I don’t do it.”

“Well, too damn bad. You aren’t going to help him.”

“I have to! I’m not going to stand around and let you die.”

“I’ll be fine—”

“No you won’t! He has your pills! All he needs to do is provoke you into having an attack and that’s it! What other choice do we have?”

Bryce stayed silent, his face a mask of despair.

Miranda’s brain whirred as she tried to find some way out of their predicament.

The bracelet had only been off for a few minutes, but she could detect the faint sensations of power beginning to re-form around the edges of her consciousness.

“Maybe we do have another choice,” she said slowly.

“What do you mean?” Bryce asked. “Did you think of a way to get us out of here?”