The Shadow Project (9 page)

T
here was silence in the chamber as they turned to look at Carradine. After a moment, Fran said, “Shall I unhook Michael?”

Carradine nodded tiredly. “Yes. He can't be any more help to her now that she's sedated.”

Sir Roland said, “What did you mean, Gary? Send someone out after her?”

“Exactly what I said,” Carradine told him. “Opal is out there somewhere in her second body, and clearly she's in danger. I'm suggesting that we send another operative to find out what's happened, maybe even stage a rescue.”

“Second body?” Hornfield echoed. “It's a long time since I heard that term.” He gave Carradine a supercilious look. “I'm not sure old superstitions will be helpful in our present situation.”

“And I'm not sure a squabble will be helpful at this
stage,” Sir Roland said icily. He turned to Carradine. “Send out another agent. We've wasted enough time talking. Do it
now.
”

“I'll go,” Michael spoke up promptly. His voice was weak and hoarse. He coughed to clear it. “I'll go,” he said again.

“Ah…,” said Carradine.

“Oh, for Christ's sake, Gary!” Roland snapped. “What? What's the problem?”

“We don't have another agent on the premises.”

“What about Michael—he's just volunteered?” Sir Roland looked across at Michael, who was out of his chair now, detached from his cap, clearly dazed but determined.

Fran said, “It's too soon, Sir Roland. Just look at him. You know how exhausting it is to work as anchor: it affects the second body far more strongly than a straightforward projection. Michael won't be ready before tomorrow evening at the earliest—better the day after. If we try to use him sooner, he could be ill for weeks.”

“I'll be fine,” Michael murmured. He gripped the arm of the chair to steady himself.

“We can't wait until tomorrow evening,” Sir Roland said. “Is Lonny Jarrett on standby?”

“On leave,” Carradine said. “In Calcutta.”

“What about the other two—the girls?”

“Lynne's got flu. Christine's up north somewhere.”

“Get her back.”

“Yes, of course,” Carradine said. “But it will take time.”

“Gary, you're the one who suggested this! Are you telling me we don't have an agent to send out?”

“Not right away,” Carradine said. Then he added, “Unless—”

“Unless—?”

Carradine said, “I was wondering about young Lipman. Have you recruited him?”

“He's agreed to work for us, yes,” Sir Roland said, frowning.

“Is he still in the building?”

Fran said, “Our young burglar? You can't use him. He hasn't had the implants. Or the basic training.”

“We think he may have natural talent,” Carradine said. “We've managed without implants before.”

“What about the anchor? We can't use Michael again. Not in the state he's in.”

“Fine,” Michael said again, swaying a little.

Surprisingly, it was Hornfield who said, “An anchor's not strictly necessary, Fran.”

Fran glanced across at him. “No, but the risk factor increases. Quite considerably, I'd imagine, if we're using an untrained operative.”

Carradine opened his mouth, but before he could speak, Sir Roland said, “We'll discuss the finer points later, Fran. Meanwhile, get young Lipman down here and hook him up.”

“We're sending him out?” Carradine asked tentatively. “Now?”

“Of course now. Just as soon as we can brief him on what to do. Don't you imagine this is urgent?”

“What happens if…?” Fran let it trail. Everybody knew what she was asking.

“He's dispensable,” Sir Roland said. “My daughter isn't.”

I
n less than five minutes, George Hanover appeared with Danny in tow. Sir Roland looked up. “Have you told him?” he asked.

Hanover nodded. “Yes.”

“I'm not doing it,” Danny said.

Every head in the chamber turned to look in his direction.

Roland took a deep breath, then asked coldly, “Why not?”

The girl Opal, Sir Roland's daughter, was slumped in one of the two wired chairs, clamped in like a torture victim. She seemed to have passed out, but she was still breathing. Danny said, “This wasn't the deal we had.”

“I thought it was
exactly
the deal we had,” Roland said.

But Danny was shaking his head. “There was no mention of sending me out tonight.”

“This is an emergency, Danny,” Sir Roland said.

The stubborn look stayed fixed on Danny's face. “You said I'd get training.”

Fran glanced briefly at Carradine but said nothing. George Hanover put on one of his most avuncular expressions. “You don't actually
need
training, Danny. Most of it is automatic.”

Carradine said, “Basic RV training is really just a question of getting used to the equipment.”

“And the experience,” Hanover added.

Something was going on here—Danny could smell it—and nobody was in any hurry to tell him what it was. He glanced at Fran, who seemed the edgiest of them all. “Who's my partner?”

“Partner?” Fran echoed, frowning.

“Two chairs wired together,” Danny said. “Two-man trip, right?”

By God, he was quick on the uptake, Roland thought. For someone who'd only stumbled onto the Project hours before and been told the minimum about its operation, he could put two and two together. Not necessarily a bad thing, if he was going to help get Opal back. Roland came to a decision. Before any of the others could speak he said, “Usually, yes. Sometimes the experience is difficult to handle if you project without a partner. But it would be unsafe to release my daughter from the second
chair at the moment, so you'll have to do this alone. We've deactivated the connection.” He was staring intently at Danny. “To the second chair.”

“So I'm flying solo?”

“There are very seldom any problems,” Roland said. “
Very
seldom indeed.”

“He the one partnered your girl?” Danny asked, nodding toward Michael.

After just the barest hesitation, Sir Roland said, “Yes.”

Michael was looking like death warmed up. He could hardly stand upright, and his hands were trembling.
Something bad has happened, and they aren't telling the half of it,
Danny thought. What they were asking him to do was a lot more dangerous than they were pretending, probably a lot more complicated as well. It was one thing joining a spy outfit and playing at remote viewing—nobody could touch you if you stayed at home—but Danny was no hero. He looked at the machinery and felt a little chill run down his spine. Those seats looked more like electric chairs than ever.

Sir Roland's daughter was obviously in a bad way. Danny hadn't expected to find her unconscious in the chair—wasn't sure what he
had
expected to find, but certainly not the pretty girl he'd seen earlier slumped like an empty sack. So long as his Nan was sick, they had
him, but that didn't mean he had to do everything they said. He felt sorry for the girl, but an early life on the streets taught you to look after number one. This whole deal was showing all the signs of a dangerous mission, whatever Sir Roland wasn't telling him.

Michael said, “He doesn't want to do it, Sir Roland. I can do it—I know I can.”

“All right,” Danny heard himself say. “Mr. Hanover says you need me. Your girl is out there somewhere and I have to get her back—is that about it?”

Sir Roland shook his head. “A little overstated. We simply need you to find out what has happened to her. If you can get her back, that would certainly be a bonus, but it's not expected. Bring us information, and we should be able to do the rest.”

“How am I supposed to find her?” Danny asked.

“We can send you to her last known coordinates,” Carradine said. “You don't have to do anything—that's automatic.”

“And I'll be able to see her—this second body of hers?”

Sir Roland nodded. “Yes, so long as you're in your own energy body. And she can see you. But no one else can.”

Fran said, “Your surroundings will seem quite normal, and so will you. Opal will seem quite solid, but she
won't be and neither will you.”

“What happens if she's not there?” Danny asked. “At the coordinates?”

“In that case, you'll have to look around.”

“You'll be able to fly in your second body—I'd suggest you use it,” Carradine said. “See if you can spot her from the air.”

Danny blinked. “I'll be able to
fly
?” He looked from one face to another. “You telling me I'll be able to fly? Like Superman?”

“Leap tall buildings with a single bound,” Carradine said sourly. “Danny, you will be in an
energy
body. You can do things with it you could never do in the physical. It's like being a ghost. You can walk through walls. Gravity can't hold you, so you can fly.”

“How?” Danny asked him promptly. He was still wary, still
scared
if he admitted it, but the idea that he might be able to fly was something else.

“You ever fly in a dream?” Carradine asked.

Danny hesitated. “Matter of fact I have,” he said. “Sometimes…”

“It's like that,” Carradine told him. “Might take a little time to get the hang of it, but…”

Danny was about to say something else, but Sir Roland cut in. “Take all the time you need. We won't call you back from this mission until you signal.”

“How do I do that?” Danny asked.

There was sudden silence in the chamber.

“Ah,” Carradine said.

Fran said, “We haven't trained him to signal.”

Danny looked from one to the other, then said to George Hanover, “That's part of the basic training I don't really need—right?”

“Maybe I exaggerated a little,” Hanover said, dropping his eyes.

Sir Roland looked from Carradine to Fran, then back to Carradine again. After a moment, Carradine said, “Suppose we link the chairs again—”

“We can't do that,” Sir Roland said abruptly. “Opal would have to absorb…” He stared at Carradine intently, letting the sentence hang.

“Not if we reroute,” Carradine said firmly. “We can keep her safe and still establish a minimal linkage. Any overflow will be looped back. We're already monitoring her vital signs. If Danny makes contact, it will show on the equipment.” He began throwing switches.

“Technical matters,” George Hanover said to Danny, as if that explained something.

Sir Roland turned to Danny as well. “You'll have to make direct contact when you see her. Speak to her. Touch her. Something of that sort. Just make sure she is aware of you. We'll do the rest.”

They were all looking at him now. After a moment, Danny finally said, “All right.”

Michael pushed himself forward to block Danny's way. “Are you sure about this?” he asked.

“No,” Danny said, “but I'll do it.”

Michael still didn't move. “We may be talking about Opal's life here. I should be the one to go.”

“You're in no state to go anywhere, Michael,” Carradine said gently. “Look at you—you can hardly stand.”

Sir Roland said firmly, “Let Danny use the chair, Michael.”

Michael hesitated, then moved reluctantly to one side. Danny hesitated, then climbed onto the chair. Everybody was watching him as if he was going to do something stupid, like make a break for it. The slumped body of the girl was in the chair beside him, so close that he could have reached out and touched her. But then Carradine was fastening the clamps around his wrists and ankles—doing it fast, too, as if he really didn't want Danny to escape. It all felt too much like an execution for Danny's taste.

Carradine said reassuringly, “Just a precaution. It stops your body from falling out of the chair when you leave it.”

“We all get strapped in,” Michael said weakly. He
was obviously fading, but he didn't want to leave.

Fran came over to put the cap on Danny's head, and he couldn't shake the feeling that he was in an electric chair. In a minute somebody would throw a switch, and he'd be fried. “What's—” He coughed to clear a throat that had suddenly turned dry. “What's going to happen?”

Former Bad Cop Fran was brisk and to the point. “You don't have to worry, Danny. We're not going to do anything until you're ready. The cap establishes an electrical connection with your brain. Later on, you'll have some scalp implants to make it easier, but we'll have to run without them now. You won't feel anything—”

“My head feels cold,” Danny said. Actually it felt
really
cold where the cap went on.

Fran gave him a small smile. “That's just the contact gel—it makes sure we have a proper connection. But you won't feel anything else, I promise. So take your time and get settled. Then, when you tell me, I'll switch on the power.”

“Try to keep your mind a blank,” Carradine said. “It helps the targeting process.”

“When you first arrive,” said George Hanover enthusiastically, “it won't seem any different from actually being there. The target location is Lusakistan—”

“Lusakistan?”
Danny gasped in sudden panic. Nobody'd told him he was being shipped out to
Lusakistan. There was a war on in Lusakistan.

“It's all right,” Carradine said soothingly. “Distance makes no difference. It's as easy—and as quick—to project to Lusakistan as it is to send you into the next room.”

“It only
seems
as if you're physically there,” George Hanover said, moving closer to Danny's real worry.

Carradine added, “They could fire a bazooka and the shell would go right through you. Wouldn't feel a thing.”

Everybody was in on the act now, trying to reassure him. Sir Roland said, “The important thing to remember is
nothing can harm you
—nothing.”

So what happened to your daughter?
Danny thought.