Liquid fear

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

The party begins.

As soon as Kleingarten hit the remote switch killing the lights, Sebastian Briggs had backed away and reached for the night-vision goggles dangling from his back pocket. The facility interior wasn’t in absolute darkness, since the faint urban glow imbued the high windows with gray, but the subjects were cast in the bleakest night.

The goggles had their own infrared-emitting source, however, which meant he was broadcasting an invisible beam that would reflect on objects and allow him to see even in total darkness. There were places in the maze that were designed to be closed off from all light, and he didn’t want to miss an inch of the fun.

The goggles were a little clumsy, since they were strapped to his head and added a little weight, but at least his hands were free.

The trio staggered around, blinking, at their most helpless. He’d calculated correctly that Wendy was the most vulnerable to Seethe and Alexis was the most coherent. Alexis had always been astute, and he wouldn’t have been surprised if she had figured out his pharmaceutical game of cat-and-mouse. But apparently the Seethe was more powerful than he’d imagined, or else she wasn’t as smart as he had hoped.

She fumbled for the pipe that Wendy had dropped, and Briggs wondered if she would turn first on the others or look for him. Roland, who should have been the most confused, had the presence of mind to drop to the floor and crawl along, patting the concrete in front of him to find the vial. Wendy Ah, Wendy.

Moving as silently as possible, Briggs eased along the massive sorting machine that assembly-line workers had once used to piece together motors. Chains clinked farther down the corridor, and he knew Kleingarten must have made his retreat. He’d instructed the man to wait an hour, and then turn the lights back on, but he certainly didn’t trust Kleingarten.

But there would be time for Kleingarten later. Right now, he had Wendy.

She had recovered a little, although she stood wobbling like a foal, blinking against the darkness. She was twenty feet away from the others, forgotten now even by her former husband.

Ah, Wendy. I have missed you.

He stood close enough to smell her. She’d shampooed with a chamomile-and-honey concoction, but it had been at least a day before, because animal sweat, tainted with a faint touch of the chemicals decomposing in her body, were her dominant odors. He didn’t mind, though. He rather liked it.

His nostrils flared as he indulged again. She turned, possibly sensing his presence, and he froze in place.

“Roland?” she said.

“Stay where you are, babe,” Roland said from twenty feet away. “All this junk around here, you might get hurt.”

She obeyed, just like she always did. Sure, she’d been Briggs’s second choice in the beginning, but she’d proven the sweetest selection because of the deeply suppressed eroticism and hunger she’d hidden even from herself. Her yearning and seeking had manifested as an artist’s passion in her waking life, but Seethe had peeled away the conscious layer and exposed the carnal creature inside. Alexis would have been too much trouble, and like any good researcher, Briggs knew all windows of opportunity were brief, and he would rather indulge than match interpersonal wits.

A successful predator always knows how to pick out the easy meat.

He knelt, hoping his knees didn’t pop, and he leaned closer, trying to smell the rest of her.

“Got ‘em,” Roland said, shaking the vial before slipping it into his pocket.

“I’m losing it over here,” Alexis said, still feeling along the floor for the pipe. Her fingers brushed it, and Briggs smiled as she brought it up with the barest scrape of metal on concrete.

“We can’t trust that bastard,” Roland said. “Every four hours, every fifteen minutes, once in a fucking lifetime. He’s just playing with us.”

“I need one,” Wendy said.

“Not yet,” Roland said. “We need to hold out as long as we can.”

“We don’t have long.” Alexis squeezed the pipe and, crouching, she moved toward Roland, trying to keep him talking. “All we have is now.”

“This isn’t some dipshit sixties song, Alexis,” Roland said. “This is life and death.”

“You ought to know about death, after what you did to Susan.”

Roland turned toward the sound of her voice, the gap between them narrowing. “I didn’t do anything to Susan. You were the leader, remember? Little Mrs. Briggs, right there pushing our buttons.”

Alexis raised the pipe and, with a screech, rushed toward him. Briggs watched through the night-vision goggles, six inches from Wendy.

Roland flinched at the cry and rolled to the side, but he wasn’t fast enough. The pipe bounced off his shoulder with a bruising thwack, and he grunted, “Fuck.”

“Lex! You okay?” Mark shouted from the far end of the factory.

Briggs smiled in the dark.

Ah, the hero to the rescue. But a kiss won’t wake this princess. No, this princess is ruling with an iron hand.

“Lex!” Mark repeated, more frantically. A stack of boxes fell over somewhere, sending a spray of small metal objects-lug nuts, rivets, ball bearings-across the floor.

Alexis swung the pipe back and forth, probably hoping to find Roland so she could deliver another blow. But Roland had learned his lesson and was keeping his mouth shut, now staggering down the corridor, his left arm hanging limp.

Briggs took the opportunity to grab Wendy’s wrist and tug her in the opposite direction.

“Roland?” she whispered.

“Shh.” He moved quickly, not giving her a chance to get oriented. He loved it when the monkeys were lost and confused.

Alexis banged her pipe against the hulk of a tractor frame, giving away her location. Mark would be able to find her, with a little time and patience. However, if the Seethe Briggs had dispensed through the ventilation system had done its job, Mark would have precious little of either. And surely Mark now understood the risk of exposing himself to a group of raving, murderous lunatics, but like fools throughout history, he was sticking his neck out for love and a senseless notion of duty.

Love. If only I could invent a drug for that, we’d truly have a crazy world.

“Where are we going?” Wendy whispered, as though understanding the need to be secretive. It sent a shiver of delight through Briggs. Just like old times.

What they shared wasn’t love, not exactly, but it was the best thing he’d ever had. And what man wouldn’t take advantage of such a situation?

“Shh.” He pulled her along, the goggles revealing the turns in the heaps of scrap iron, towering stacks of rubber tires, and old wooden crates. He knew the layout well enough that he could have navigated it in his sleep.

“It’s the Seethe!” Mark shouted from the far end of the facility. “It’s making us freak out.”

“Mark?” Alexis called, from one corridor over, though her voice echoed throughout the cavernous shell.

“Be careful!” Roland yelled. “She’s gone violent!”

“I’m not violent,” Alexis said, followed by the sound of scuffling feet. “Now give me those goddamned pills or I’ll bash your brains in.”

Upon hearing Roland call out, Wendy resisted Briggs’s pull. “Roland?” she whispered. “How can you be in two places at once?”

“Because he’s two people,” Briggs said. “And I’m the good Roland.”

Wendy wasn’t convinced, and she tried to pull away, digging her fingernails into the back of Briggs’s hand. He yanked her close and grabbed her hair, pulling her ear to his mouth. He didn’t need to be quiet, because the others were shouting, but he knew the power of a whisper.

“This was all for you, Wendy,” Briggs said. “We belong together. After CRO pays me off, we’ll go away. Bermuda, the Yucatan Peninsula, New Zealand. You name it.”

“No,” she moaned, still resisting.

“I can fix you,” he said, impatient now. “I have some Halcyon in my office.”

“Let me go,” she said, her body tensing as she strained to break free of his grip. He wrapped more of her long hair around his fingers and put his other hand around her throat.

“If you scream, I will hurt you very badly, and I don’t want to do that,” Briggs said. Yet.

She started to scream anyway, and he knew he’d miscalculated. More fear would only accelerate the effects of the Seethe, and she’d already crossed the line.

He squeezed her throat, choking off any sound but a faint, nasal wheezing. Through the night-vision goggles, her eyes appeared as bulging green orbs in her beautiful, heart-shaped face.

“Come on,” Briggs said. “I’ve waited ten years for this. I know you’ve been waiting, too.”

As he dragged her to his office, she grew limp, and he wasn’t sure she was still breathing. He let go of her hair and put one arm around her slim waist, letting his hand trail across those breasts he had fantasized about for so many years. She wasn’t wearing a bra.

A hundred feet away, Alexis and Mark were calling to one another, feeling their way in the dark. An occasional piece of equipment clattered to the floor. Roland must have decided to play it safe and keep his mouth shut.

Briggs had instructed Kleingarten to wait by the front door. Even though the lock wouldn’t release until Briggs had keyed the command from the security console, he didn’t want to take any chances. Plus the task would keep Kleingarten safely out of the way until Briggs was ready to assign him mop-up duty.

And then Briggs would dispose of him along with the rest of the trash.

He reached his office just as Alexis began shouting for Roland. “I need my pill!” she shrieked.

He’d never known she was such a bitch. But then, he’d forgotten what she was like on Seethe. He hadn’t watched the video recently.

He propped Wendy in his leather swivel chair by the computer and turned her to face the rows of video monitors. “Here, my sweet, let me make you more comfortable,” he said, loosening her top two buttons.

Her breasts were as pert as he remembered. He dipped to have a sample, even though the night-vision goggles cast it in an unappealing shade of muted green. Her nipple puckered in the cool air; he told himself it was because of his skill.

“I know you’re anxious, but there will be time for that later,” Briggs said, and she gave a distant moan in response.

He withdrew a syringe from his top drawer. He’d wanted to save it for later, but he couldn’t control himself any longer. He realized he was as juiced up as any of his monkeys. Except his juice was natural.

The Seethe serum was engineered for intramuscular use, so he could stick it virtually anywhere. He moved the point of the needle over her breasts, stroking. Then he inserted it just below her collarbone. She sighed as he flooded her system.

He hit the electrical override breaker, which would prevent Kleingarten from switching on the lights if he chose to disobey Briggs’s orders. He connected the battery backups, which had just enough power to run the equipment in his office.

On the top row of monitors, with the hallway camera switched to thermal imaging, he saw the orange-and-yellow outlines of Anita and Burchfield copulating on the floor, their bodies radiating heat. A smaller man, obviously David Underwood, was making a pathetic attempt to pull Burchfield from atop her, but the senator was pumping like a man possessed.

If the electorate could see him now. But no surprise there. He’s been fucking Americans for years.

The final captive, Wallace Forsyth, had not left his cell, and the isolation camera showed his form huddled in the corner, apparently on his hands and knees, hands clasped in front of his bowed head.

Ah, prayer. The last refuge of the hopeless. That’s what happens when you come face to face with yourself. You become your own worst nightmare.

He checked the wide-angle cameras attached to the factory ceiling, thirty feet above the floor. He zoomed in the one pointed at the rear of the building.

“Ah, that explains it,” he said to Wendy. “Mark must have locked them in. Not exactly according to plan.”

Because the door had a regular lock in addition to the electronic lock, Briggs couldn’t open it again without doing it manually. And he wasn’t going to leave his office until this was over. It would be the only safe place when the subjects degraded to their most primitive selves.

He slid the cage door into place and secured it with a hasp lock.

Then he rolled Wendy in the chair over to the monitors and faced her toward the largest screen in the middle.

“I have something I’d like you to see,” he said, taking her hand. “And something to remember.”