Healed (The Found Book 3) (12 page)

“But you’re onto something Nate. Rixitron has been after
found
, but they wanted to breed Sarah in particular. How did they figure she could heal? Is that the reason they wanted to breed her?” Cyrus said thoughtfully.

“When we analyzed why she was a target before we figured it was because she successfully cleared so many cases they realized she was using some
found
ability to heal. If they discovered another
found
with a similar set of circumstances, perhaps they would target them as well.”

“Imagine if it was a man, Stovers would be wetting himself if two
found
healers would produce a baby,” Sierra interjected.

“Now you’re talking in the world of make believe. We don’t have time for this kind of crap,” Cyrus said in frustration. “Stovers knows all the
found
there are to be had, and he knows none of them have healing capabilities like Sarah.”

“Hold up Cyrus, we could plant someone for him to discover. Someone with a background similar to Sarah’s,” Sierra said.

“How in the hell could you do that? Better yet, how could you do it in time to help Sarah? I don’t want fucking pipe dreams,” Cyrus snarled.

Nate and Sierra looked at one another.

“What?” Cyrus demanded.

“It’s a longshot,” Nate warned.

“Tell me,” Cyrus demanded again.

“When Rixitron Pharmaceuticals first got on Sakuro’s radar, we had Sierra start monitoring every system she could. She found a real interesting one about six months ago,” Nate explained.

“Will you just spit it out?”

“Tell him, Sierra.”

“First, it was a pretty old program. Rixitron’s been tracking the
found
for over three years. At least they’d been attempting to. They were combing through records all over the world. Newspaper articles, adoption records, baptismal certificates, school and hospital records. Basically anything their computer program could find with specific parameters. They based it on the five publicized
found
children, and their lives, thinking similar types of situations would have happened for other
found
children who weren’t publicized.”

“Fuck, that’s ingenious. Did they find children?” Cyrus moved in closer.

“Yeah, some were dead ends, but early on, it looks like they discovered a couple, and then all of a sudden the program stopped working properly. I couldn’t figure it out. Then we met Max.”

“What does a
found
guardian have to do with a Rixitron computer system,” Cyrus asked.

“Use your head,” Nate bit out, and then calmed himself. He really was stressed about Sarah. Cyrus didn’t look like he had taken offense, and his next words proved it.

“Just talk to me like I’m a newbie. I really don’t get it.”

“When Max entered the scene and explained he was a guardian sent over from the alternate universe to guard the
found
children, we knew he kept his memories intact. He has been monitoring the children who came to the United States, and he’d been watching out for those people and organizations who have been looking to harm any of these children.”

“Yeah, I knew most of that, but are you saying he discovered what Rixitron was doing?” Cyrus sounded more and more excited with every word Sierra said.

“Yep. He found out two and a half years ag, and put a bug in their code so they no longer discovered any more
found
.”

“But had they been successful before that?” Cyrus wanted to know.

“He and some of the other guardians have been working on that problem,” Sierra answered. “But now, we could use this program for our purposes. We can feed in that someone is a
found
healer.”

“We don’t have a lot of time to put someone into place. We have to talk to Sakuro maybe they have someone we can use,” Nate interrupted.

“I say it should be me.”

“Dammit Sierra, you just said the best bet would be to have it be a man, so Stovers would be tempted to make a superbaby.” Nate’s stomach churned at the thought.

“I know,” she said dejectedly. “But we have to move fast, Stovers is leaving tomorrow.”

“I can do it. I have the right history. It should be easy enough to insert me into Rixitron’s computer program,” Kota said quietly.

“What are you talking about?” Sierra asked, but Nate knew. He’d heard Kota’s story once. It wasn’t pretty.

“I was adopted. I was dropped off at the reservation clinic when I was six years old. It was summer. I didn’t speak for the first year,” Kota said it quietly and captured everyone’s attention.

“What year was that?” Cyrus demanded. “What day?”

“It was the Fourth of July same year as the others. I know the
found
showed up June 19
^th
, so me showing up Independence Day is really close.”

“Oh my God, are you
found
?” Sierra stared at him as if she could see all of his secrets.

“No.”

“Where did you come from? Who was your Mom? Your family?”

“I don’t want to talk about it. But you can see how it will work for our purposes.” Kota’s answer didn’t allow for any follow-ups.

Sierra pulled out her laptop and booted it up.

“I’m really sorry Kota, that’s rough. But for what we need this might really work. Hold on and let me get logged in. But we’re going to have to do more. We need to show you have
found
abilities.” She bent over her laptop for a few more minutes and then looked up.

“It will work,” she confirmed.

Nate thought for a minute. “Kota, let’s house you close. I’m thinking Bremerton, it has the huge Navy Installation, and it’s not too far over the border in Washington State. That way Stovers doesn’t have far to go and get you.”

“It also has the big naval hospital,” Sierra said, her fingers flying over the keyboard. “It should be easy enough to plant some records of him around patients who had miraculous recoveries.”

“Wait, don’t you need to make him a doctor?” Cyrus demanded.

“We can’t change his whole background, we have to just slightly alter some aspects so that it seems plausible. All of our unit has training as medics, so Kota having worked some of the time at the hospital will be believable. I can make sure he is recorded as having been in the hospital at the same time as those patients who had fantastic recoveries.”

“I don’t know how in the hell you can do that kind of thing Sierra,” Nate said in amazement. “but please do.”

“How soon do you want me to flag Kota as one of the
found
?” Sierra asked.

“We should be able to get him down to the Bremerton in six hours by car. How soon can you have the records altered?”

“I can have Kota’s records altered to look like a
found
in about two hours. Then it will take me another two hours to feed it back into Stovers’ program.” Nate loved working with Sierra, she could work miracles.

“Okay, let’s say eight hours, so we ensure Kota is in place.”

“How do you know Stovers will take the bait and take Kota to where they’re keeping Sarah?” Cyrus asked.

Nate and Kota looked at one another, then Kota answered. “I’ll have to end up with an injury. Then he’ll want to make sure I’m immediately taken someplace safe. It’s a good bet it will be where Sarah is.”

“That sounds too risky.” Cyrus looked at the three members of the naval unit and saw the same determined expressions.

“Trust Kota, he knows what he’s doing. Hell, if he gets to plan a hit, instead of just taking one he doesn’t see coming, he’ll be fine. Cyrus, it’s not just that they’ll take Kota to the same place as Sarah, they’ll want Sarah to heal him. You know it, I know, we all know it.” The whole thing made Nate want to throw up. The idea of Kota getting injured, and then Sarah having to heal him and making herself sick. All of it was a nightmare, but it was what needed to happen. They were all looking at him. He nodded.

“Sounds like a plan,” he agreed.

Chapter Eight

“No!”

“Grab her.” The beefy orderly pulled and twisted her wrist. A white spear of agony went up her arm. She didn’t stop struggling.

“Sarah, you’re just making this hard on yourself,” the Simms woman said in a phony kind voice.

“You’re not going to shove more of that shit into me,” Sarah had enough.

“We could have done this the easy way, but it’s your choice to make it hard.” Sarah should have known there would be restraints on the bed. The night nurse named Tom helped the hulking orderly strap her down, cuffing her wrists and ankles. She winced at how tight the fucker strapped her left wrist, he was obviously a sadist, because it was already bruising.

“Are you sure this won’t mess up the fertility drugs, Simms?” Sarah asked with a sneer.

Simms faltered as she lifted the sleeve of Sarah’s gown.

“We altered this slightly and it will actually enhance your egg production. After enough dosages you won’t remember anything at all. You’ll be nothing more than our little baby maker.” Sarah looked at the ice blue eyes and it was the truth. She jerked her shoulder away at the last moment when the bitch tried to insert the needle.

“Hold her, Stan.” He was even scarier when he grinned. He shoved Sarah down on the pillows, his forearm over her throat.

“How’s this doc?”

“Perfect,” she purred. She shoved the needle in.

“I’ll see you in two hours for your fertility treatment. It’ll be nice to see you smiling at me with that absolutely adorable look of befuddlement. Let’s go guys.” Sarah watched as the trio left her room.

Okay Johnson, it’s time to pull up your big girl panties.

She’d had to deal with amnesia before and she’d remembered. She could do it again. Hell the first five years of her life had been hidden from her until she met her guardian Max.

Max’s sister held her hand and had showed her a snippet of her life before she came to
this
Earth. Maybe if she held onto that memory, she would be able to tap into her ability to overcome amnesia. Maybe she would find a way to fight these drugs coursing through her system. Maybe, somehow, some way, if she clung to the old memories, she would wake up with
all
of her memories intact.

Sarah focused on the time before she came to this universe…

She spread the fingers of her small hand. They looked like a little brown starfish with pink tips. She flapped them up and down and the pretty little red headed girl next to her grinned and hugged her.

“I’m so sad,” she laughed. Her lip pouted out. “but I’m so happy too.”

Sarah looked into the seats of the stadium. She squinted into the bright sun and tried to see her aunt, but the streamers of light were too blinding. She let go of the girl and waved her arms wildly. She knew her aunt would be waving back.

Her aunt promised she would get to go and be with a really big family and she would have so much fun and get to do good things for people. Sarah talked to many adults and other children and agreed this was the right thing for her. It was easy when you had a
knowing
.

She pulled the rest of the raisins her aunt gave her out of her pocket, they were all mashed together in a warm mass of goo just the way she liked them. She pried apart half and offered them to the other girl, who grinned and took them. The juice spurted into her mouth as she waited. Finally, a girl even littler than she was, walked to the front of the stadium. A big boy walked with her. The little girl had really long brown hair and freckles, and the boy had dark hair.

He put down a stool and so the girl could stand and look over the podium at all of the assembled children. She started talking into a microphone.

Sarah giggled, the girl sounded like a baby, she talked with a lisp. Then she heard her say they were children with beautiful souls. It was the same thing her aunt always said. Sarah smiled, and kept listening. She loved what the little girl said next, and Sarah’s heart filled to the brim.

Sarah smiled as she drifted off to sleep.

****

Nate watched as the Rixitron bastards loaded Kota onto the private jet, he was barely conscious. Nate could still see blood seeping from underneath Kota’s bandages. Lee Stovers was inside. This time they had everything in place to not just track, but to follow them wherever they went. It was great having access to the best equipment the Navy had to offer. Nate kept telling himself Stovers needed Kota alive.

It had been a hell of a fight. Nate, Sierra and Cyrus watched it with high powered rifles trained on the combatants, ready to fire if it looked like their gamble was wrong. It wasn’t. Two Rixitron thugs were left behind at the docks in Bremerton. Kota used a knife when they pulled guns on him. The fact they hadn’t fired showed they wanted him alive just like they’d thought.

Kota let the third guy take his knife and cut him. Nate grinned, there was no way anyone would have gotten the better of Dakota Blackthorne in a knife fight unless he wanted them to. Kota hadn’t allowed himself to be stabbed, rather he was left with a long gash from under his arm to his lower back. He’d end up with a hell of a scar for sure.

Somebody patched him up and Kota was stashed in a car and driven to a small airfield where Stovers and the company jet waited. They saw that he was upright and conscious. Sierra already had transport to follow Stovers. The flight plan said Georgia, but Nate highly doubted it was the real destination.

When they buckled in, Sierra turned to Nate.

“That wound was a lot worse than Kota intended.”

“They didn’t get any vital organs,” Cyrus assured her.

“He’s still bleeding despite the bandages,” Sierra said as she chewed her lower lip.

“No major arteries. He’s going to be fine. They staunched the bleeding. As far as they’re concerned, he’s one of their prized
found
. They’ll take care of him, Sierra,” Cyrus assured her.