Deadly Games - Cate Noble [77]
“In a chamber, right? I remember I hated going in.” Taz started panting now. “But coming out felt glorious. Until later, when we remembered what we’d done.”The past is forbidden.
Erin’s voice softened. “We believe some of those memories were implanted. They didn’t really happen.”
“I will look up at the stars….”
“Which ones? Which memories?” he demanded.
“I’m not sure. It’s what Max—Hades—is trying to unravel now. That’s why it’s important you come in for treatment, too.”
“No treatments!”
“It’s not like what Dr. Rufin did,” Erin rushed to explain. “You remain in control at all times. And it can help you reclaim your old life. Your real life.”
His old life. The words hit Taz like a freight train.
Remember who you are.
I am Logan.
I am Logan Treyhorn.
“I love you, Logan. Come back to me.”
Unable to take the escalating pain, Taz jammed the ice pick into his thigh and twisted it. Kill agony with agony.
Erin pulled off the road. “No, please. There is another way.”
Gritting his teeth, Taz twisted the pick again. “Didn’t Max, Hades, explain? It’s the only thing that keeps … it at bay.”
“Yes, he told me.”
As Taz’s control returned, he caught glimmers of her thoughts once more. He didn’t like what he felt: pity.
Her compassion had melted into sympathy— because she felt that what had been done to Taz was far worse than what the others had suffered. He probed deeper, loathing what he found next.
“Tell me the truth, Erin,” Taz said. “What are these microchips you keep thinking about? And why does everyone want what’s on them?”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Bangkok, Thailand
October 5, 10:05 P.M.
Travis Franks hated playing games. Problem was, he was good at them. And at his level within the Agency, they were required. Typically he could out-juggle a veteran circus clown. But not today.
Maddy.
Pregnant.
He knew exactly when it had happened, too. He had spent the night at her place and woke up spooned against her. Inside her. She had rocked back twice and immediately launched into an orgasm. Which had tripped his trigger. Too late he remembered “no condom” and had pulled out.
She’d insisted they were both responsible since they’d both succumbed to the heat of the moment. And then she’d assured him that she didn’t think she was ovulating.
That had been six or seven weeks ago. Travis had forgotten it. Until now. He’d gone back over the Virginia police detective’s reports. Her girlfriend had said Maddy had seemed preoccupied. No kidding.
Her credit card trail had ended the night before she disappeared. Her Visa transactions showed she’d made a fuel purchase at a gas station near her home before picking up Chinese carryout and stopping at a drugstore.
Catalina Dion had tracked down the store’s copy of Maddy’s receipt, which showed the purchase of a pregnancy test kit. The fact that Maddy had probably just confirmed her suspicions before disappearing helped soothe Travis’s “why didn’t she tell me?” angst.
Travis had already updated Luc about Maddy’s condition and the less than forty-eight-hour deadline. It was frustrating to think that right now Luc had more latitude than Travis did in Thailand.
Channels that were normally available to Travis had slammed shut, mostly because of the Agency’s ongoing charade of searching for Dr. Rufin. There were also the diplomatic issues of the Agency’s covertly recovering two operatives while searching for a third.
More and more, Travis missed the freedom of being in the field. Real time was where the difference was made. The mission-critical decisions a seasoned operative made on the spot often tipped the scales. It was what allowed the CIA to be successful despite rumors of a mole, or moles, within its own ranks.
Travis knew that was just part of the spy game. Hell, every country tried to infiltrate another’s intelligence agency; even its allies’. Still, it pissed him off to learn there was a leak within his own division.
Correction: it pissed him off that he couldn’t locate the leak. The person he’d suspected had committed suicide,