Inner Workings

Inner Workings - Part 34

Rachel couldn't concentrated on the broken machine when Cetz hovered at her door. He looked confused.

"Something wrong?" she asked.

"No." Cetz shook his head and tapped something on his tablet. "The guys are out of Sandra's way, and Reese and Beni are in flight to their location."

"As is Watch One's team," said Rachel, setting down the half melted pieces.

"Watch One is going after Sandra Pearl."

"And Louis." Rachel snapped off the latex gloves and flicked them to the disposal tray. She scanned her palm over the sensor and closed the lab door behind her. "Harrison wants Louis for his pet project. He suggested Louis play bait."

"Reese and Beni will be there to make sure One doesn't get too grabby." Cetz moved back down the hallway, the underground lights flitting by overhead. He had to get back to Main Tech and a Com Screen, and his pace made Rachel walk double time. "What else do you want me to do?"

"Get Watch Mission Control to ensure Louis is stationed here permanently before Watch One goes over our heads."

"That's not our call, Rachel. That belongs to Louis and Louis alone." Cetz turned and stopped, his glare pinning the blonde doctor still. "And surprisingly enough, not all of Watch One's dealings with us concern Louis and Will. They have issues of their own to deal with. Leave this alone."

Rachel tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear. "Will you still keep me informed of their status."

"When it is pertinent to your research, yes."

Cetz walked off to Main Tech. Rachel went to her office, needed something long, tedious, and venting. And she had a very long to-do list to choose from.

***

Will lay frozen, feeling cold, strange fingers tap along each of his ribs, as if searching for a hidden room. As long as Will didn't move, didn't even breathe, the hand would not take its search further, deeper.

"Where is he?" the voice teased in his ear. "Is he here?"

A tap on Will's sternum and he kept still.

"Is he here?" The hand reached lower, tracing circles over his belly. Then the circles went lower, cupping his groin. The voice laughed, making Will's jaw clench. "No way would he go anywhere near this."

He wouldn't move, dare not move. But if he did move it would be to slug the bastard in the face. If the voice even had a face. The hand disappeared for a moment. Had it left? Had being still worked?

No. It came back, drawing a frost covered fingertip back up across Will's chest, tapping a spot over his heart.

"Oh... how sweet."

Then it pushed in, easy as digging a spoon into Jello. Will tried to thrash, but all his resolve to keep still had cut his mind off from his limbs. He lay limp as a doll. His lungs frozen, suffocating.

"Does he really belong there, William?"

"William?"

"Will?"

"Hey, Fanboy."

Will's head jerked up from his aching shoulder, crossing his arms across his chest as if cold. Then the ache of his scratched arm hit him, the copper in the back of his throat, and familiar sting in his stomach. Reality.

"What's wrong with you?" asked Louis, tapping the top of his empty thermos.

"Nothing," said Will, his voice grating. Aside from a dream reenactment of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, peachy. Will swallowed down the coppery barbs. "We there yet?"

"Not exactly." Louis gestured out the windows to the brick building and green city park.

For a small college town there were quite a lot of cars, all of them covered in streaks of mud and rain from the tires to the windshields. And so many people, dragging luggage or carrying bags, all streaming towards the same destination. The Will saw the problem.

Red Cross and first aid tents took residence in a parking lot, people streaming back and forth between the town and the tents and trucks with boxes of bottled water and supplies. The town had tuned into a ground zero for those stranded and lost. A scenario Will had seen many times before.

Ram, talking on his cell phone in the front seat, looked towards the back seats. "We picked a really bad time, dad. Mary says half the town's electricity is out and every car or person stuck in the mud in a twenty mile radius is being brought here."

"Is she alright?" asked Massaru.

"Yeah. She's with some friends at the laundry tent helping out. All classes have been canceled and the students are getting some volunteer hours in with the Red Cross."

"Then better for us to be here, to help," said the elder Devi, forcing a smile.

Ram went back to his phone call, the conversation between him and Mary becoming curter as the drive went on. Parvati, though sullen, kept her eyes on the road and searched for a parking spot out of the way of the trucks and tents.

Louis leaned forward in the seat and tapped Massaru on the shoulder. He spoke quietly, but direct. "It'd be better if we skip town soon."

"The more people around the less likely Sandra may try something rash," reasoned Massaru.

"She had people put a bomb in our car," said Louis. "I don't think she specializes in subtle. You said it yourself, once she latches onto something, she doesn't stop. And we just got confirmation from Rachel that the woman is psycho."

"But the people she employs to do her dirty work are not."

Will pressed his hand over his injured arm. After his experience, he automatically assumed people with explosives were crazy.

They weren't likely to encounter Sandra so far away from the Devi house. And Reese and Beni were on their way along with Watch One's retrieval team.

Parvati parked the SUV and got out. Will leaned forward. "Remember, you're still bait. This gets any worse we'll have to read in your family. Keep close."

Keeping an eye on a man in a place that looked like arefugee camp. Nothing he hadn't donebefore.