The Order of Brigid's Cross - The Wild Hunt (Book 1): The Wild Hunt (24 page)

“Oh good.
Sean. Gillian’s up with
Father Jack securing the front of the building,” Ian said as Sean entered the
laboratory. “I have something I want…” He stopped when he saw Adrian follow
Sean into the room with Pete close behind. “Well,” he continued, “I didn’t know
we were having company.”

“Ian, perfect, just the guy I was looking for,” Sean said.
“I need your help. This is my friend Adrian.”

Ian folded his arms across his chest, nodded mutely and
waited for more information.
 
He
recognized the name as the fellow who’d been setting Sean up and putting Jamal
in danger. He already didn’t like the man, and he was certain he didn’t trust
him.

“We think someone’s been messing with his mind,” Sean
continued, “and I’d like you to take a peek.”

Cocking his head to one side, Ian studied Adrian for another
moment. “And why would you be thinking someone’s messing with your mind?” Ian
asked skeptically.

“I don’t know that someone has,” Adrian replied defensively.
“It was Sean’s idea.”

Ian’s eyes narrowed. “Aye, and was it Sean’s idea to meet
with you or was it yours?” he asked.

“It was Adrian’s,” Sean replied. “Why?”

“And if I were trying to see how involved Sean was in the
Order of Brigid’s Cross what better way than to appeal to his sense of loyalty
and friendship,” Ian said. “And get yourself into the church as a friend,
although you’re naught but a spy.”

Pete rolled forward. “Wait. Wait just a minute here,” he
said. “Adrian actually seems to be confused about what has been happening, and
he called Sean to talk about me. I don’t think it’s a set up.”

Ian shook his head, still not convinced. “And how hard would
it be for those against us to know that you and Sean were here together this
morning?” Ian asked. “If they’ve been watching your apartment and been
following you?”

Eyes widening, Pete glanced at Sean. “You know, I hadn’t
even thought of that,” he replied. “Sean what do you think?”

Sean looked at his former partner. “I’ve got to know,
Adrian,” he asked, his tone sober. “Were you asked to meet with me so you could
get into the church and learn more about what we are doing?”

Adrian’s quick shifting of his eyes downward caused Sean to
curse softly and shake his head. “Dude, I trusted you,” he said.

Adrian met Sean’s eyes. “You don’t get it,” he said. “You
don’t understand the plan here, Sean.
 
We
are going to be able to get rid of the gangs.
 
We are going to eliminate the drive-by shootings. We’re going to be able
to stop the drug wars. We’re going to let people live in neighborhoods where
they can sit on their front porches and visit with each other without fear.
This is a good thing.”

Closing his eyes in weariness for a moment, Sean slowly
shook his head. “No, Adrian, you don’t understand,” he said. “That’s not how we
do things.
 
We are not the judge and jury.
We only enforce the laws.
 
When we forget
that, we’re screwed.” He grabbed Adrian’s shoulders. “Don’t you get it? You’re
an accomplice to murder!
 
You murdered
those kids in cold blood.”

Brushing Sean’s arms away, Adrian shook his head and stepped
back. “No! No! You don’t understand,” he argued. “The Hunt, they only kill
people who are corrupt.
People who have already killed.
People who have evil in their hearts.
So, it’s all
good, Sean. It’s all good.”

“Adrian,” Pete interrupted softly. “They tried to kill
Sean.”

Adrian stopped. “What?” He shook his head. “No.
 
They can’t do that. They can’t kill someone
who’s good.”

“Someone’s been feeding you a line,” Sean said. “And you
bought it, hook, line and sinker.”

“No, it’s worse than that,” Ian said, moving forward towards
Adrian and studying his eyes. “You had the right of it. He’s under the
influence of another.”

“What?” Sean said, shifting his gaze from Adrian to Ian. “I
thought you said he was a spy?” Then he looked back at Adrian. “And he admitted
he was a spy.”

Nodding, Ian didn’t reply to Sean but continued to study
Adrian. “So, Adrian, would you like me to take you to the place we keep all of
our secrets?” he asked.

Adrian smiled and nodded. “Yeah, that would be nice.”

“Aye, and if you’d just walk in here, into the lab area,
I’ll show it to you,” he said, taking Adrian’s arm, leading him further into
the room and guiding him to a chair. “Now, you just relax for a moment and I’ll
clear everything with Sean.”

He left Adrian in the chair and returned to Sean and Pete.

“Okay, this is more than weird,” Sean said. “I feel like I
just walked into another episode of the Twilight Zone. What the hell is going
on with Adrian?”

“It’s just a suspicion I have,” Ian said. “And I’ll need
your help.” He started to walk back into the lab and then turned back to the
men following him. “Oh, and just play along with anything I say.”

Sean watched Ian walk back into the lab and then turned to
Pete. “Here we go again.”

They followed Ian to a supply closet in the corner of the
lab.
 
When they got close, Ian handed
Sean three stainless steel trays. “Are we making cookies?” Sean asked, looking
at the trays that resembled cookie sheets.

“No. We’re not,” Ian replied, grabbing a couple more for
himself
. “We’re testing a theory.”

Sean and Pete followed Ian back to Adrian. Ian placed the
sheets on the stainless steel table next to them and then turned to speak with
Adrian.
 
“Are you ready?” he asked.

Adrian nodded. “Yes, I’d like to see the secrets.”

“Fine,” Ian said. “But first we need to make things a little
more discreet in here.” He looked over to Pete and Sean.
“If
you two wouldn’t mind holding up the sheets to form a box of sorts around
Adrian’s head.”

Shrugging, Pete adjusted his chair so it rose up, then took
two of the sheets Sean handed him and angled them to form a ninety degree
angle.
  
Sean followed Pete’s lead, but
placed one sheet against the two Pete held and then one on top, leaving the
front open.
 

“Adrian, what is it you’d like to know?” Ian asked.

Adrian stared at Ian and shook his head several times, as if
to clear his thoughts. “What did you say?” he asked.

“What is it you’d like to know?” Ian asked.

“I’d like to know who the hell you are and where the hell I
am,” he answered, his voice filled with apprehension.

“Aye, I thought you might feel that way,” Ian said. “Give me
a moment and I’ll be able to answer a few more of your questions.”

He walked away from Adrian back towards the closet.

“You want to fill us in on what’s happening?” Sean asked.

“Sean is that you?” Adrian asked.

“Yeah, I’m the guy behind the metal curtain,” Sean replied.
“Don’t worry, buddy, I’ve got your back.”

Ian went back into the closet and came out with the
headpiece from a suit of armor in his hands.

“What the hell?” Sean asked. “Doing a little interior
decorating to make it feel like home?”

Ian grinned. “Actually, Gillian found this at an antique
store and purchased it for me,” he explained. “Who knew I’d need it for
something like this?”

“Like what?” Pete asked.

“Just a moment,” Ian said, moving back in front of Adrian
and lowering the helmet onto his head. Adrian raised his eyes towards the
helmet in confusion.

“What the hell?” he asked.

“It will all be clearer in a moment,” Ian replied. Then he
fit the helmet securely to
Adrain’s
head. “And now we
can talk.”
 
He stepped back and leaned
against the table. “Sean and Pete, you can lower the trays.”

Adrian looked around and met Sean’s eyes. “How the hell did
I get here?” he asked.

Sean sighed. “Skinny, I think that’s the least of your
problems.”

Ian walked across the room and closed the door to the lab,
locking it securely. “I don’t anticipate any problems,” he said as he clicked
the bolt into its moorings. “But I would rather prefer to be safe than sorry.”

Turning, he met Adrian’s wary and confused eyes. “Tell me,
Adrian,” he started. “Do you mind if I call you Adrian?” he interrupted
himself. At Adrian’s acquiescent nod, Ian continued. “What is the last thing
you remember?”

Adrian thought for a few moments. “I was at my house after
work and I got a phone call,” he said. “They wanted to meet me and talk about
the gang problems in Chicago.”

“Who?”
Sean asked.

Shaking his head, Adrian clamped his eyelids together in
concentration. Finally, with a sigh he opened them and looked at Sean. “I can’t
remember.”

“That’s okay,” Ian said. “It’s not important right now.
 
What’s today’s date?”

“I don’t know,” he said with a shrug and then he named a
date.

“Dude, you’ve lost two weeks,” Sean said and then he turned
to Ian. “What’s going on?”

Ian scratched his head thoughtfully and finally replied.
“Well, as near as I can guess, he’s been under faery control for the past few
weeks,” he replied.

“Okay, yeah, we already said he was hypnotized,” Sean
inserted.

Shaking his head, Ian leaned back against the table. “No,
not hypnotism,” he said. “More like mind control.”

“Like the Manchurian candidate?” Pete asked.

“Well, yes and no,” Ian answered. “I’m guessing with faery
it’s more of a collective thought process, connecting the lower level faeries’
minds with the higher level faeries’, so they are controlled.”

“Like the Borg?” Sean asked.

Ian smiled. “Aye, in a way,” he answered. “But I don’t think
there is just one main computer system controlling them all; I believe that the
Seelie
court dominates the
UnSeelies
.”

“Okay Professor, back up and come again,” Sean said. “I’m
not sure I’m following you here.”

Ian stood up and walked across the room to a large
whiteboard.
 
He picked up a black marker
and drew a head. “So here we have a brain,” he said.

“Looks more like a mushroom,” Sean commented.

“You’re not helping,” Ian replied, shaking his head and
turning back to the drawing and drawing a spinal cord. “The brain controls the
rest of the body using electrical impulses that run through the nervous system.
Got it?”

The three men observing nodded and Ian smiled. “Good.”

Then he drew a long arch from the head across to the other
side of the board. “But what happens if the electrical impulses you’re
receiving don’t come from your brain, but somewhere else.
 
What happens if your impulses are superseded
by something else?”

“Can that happen?” Pete asked.

“Aye, there was a recent study at the University of Washington
where they could send one person’s thoughts through a computer to the mind of a
second person and have the second person react to the thoughts of the person,”
Ian replied. “And they were a half mile away from each other.”

“But Skinny doesn’t have a computer hooked up to his brain,”
Sean inserted.

“No, you’re right,” Ian said. “But I think the fae are far
more advanced than we are in this kind of thing, and they don’t need computers,
just a willing mind.
 
Which
is how they are able to use glamour on us.
 
It’s mini mind control. Their minds tell our
minds what they want us to see and we see it.”

“Well damn,” Pete said. “That makes a lot of sense.”

“So, they controlled Adrian’s mind and got him to do the
stuff he did,” Sean said. “So, now he’s not under their spell anymore.”

Ian shook his head.
 
“Right now, because of the iron in the helmet, I’ve blocked their
access,” he said. “But I think that once the connection is made, it’s not
easily broken.”

“Does that mean I’m going to be under their spell for the rest
of my life?” Adrian asked.

Ian shrugged. “I don’t know the answer to that,” he said.
“The stories that have been passed down tend to insinuate that once a mortal is
under the influence of fae, they never quite get over it.”

Sean thought about Em’s mother and the power one faerie had
over her until she died of longing. “So, we’re just going to have to figure out
how to break the connection,” he said with determination. “That’s all.”

Then he walked over to his friend and tapped on the helmet.
“Or you’re going to have really bad helmet hair for the rest of your life.”

“Funny, Irish, real funny,” Adrian replied. “But, really,
what do I do now?”

“Well, before you do anything else,” Ian said, “I want to
hypnotize you.”

“Wait. What?” Sean asked. “I thought you said this wasn’t
hypnotism.”

“It’s not,” Ian said. “But right now your friend has
information in his mind that he might not be able to get to because he’s not
under their influence.
 
Information that
might help us
find
out where the next attack is going
to occur.”

Adrian turned to face Sean. “What the hell did I do when I
was under their control?” he asked. “What the hell is going on?”

Placing his hand on his friend’s shoulder, Sean patted it
gently. “Yeah, once Ian gets his information, we’ll have a long conversation,”
he said. “I promise. Are you okay with us taking a peek under the lid?”

A slight smile appeared on Adrian’s lips. “Yeah, go ahead,”
he said, leaning back in the chair. “Just don’t go probing where you don’t
belong.”

“Oh, you mean that crush you’ve had on me since you first
saw me?” Sean teased. “Don’t worry, that’s perfectly normal. I’m damn near
irresistible.”