Healed (The Found Book 3) (27 page)

“We tried everything. We did blood tests, we did CAT scans, and MRI’s, we, we,” she bit her lip so hard blood seeped out and dripped down her chin.

“Say it,” Gabriella’s voice was steel.       Sarah reached out and gripped Nate’s hand. God it was going to be bad.

“I wasn’t there. I was in Nevada and they took her to Atlanta. I only read the results of the tests they ran. I wasn’t there. I would never have been part of what they did, you’ve got to believe me.” Sarah didn’t believe her. She remembered all too well what she suffered at her hands.

“What did they do,” Gabriella demanded.

“They needed to measure her brain activity when she was hurting someone, something.” Simms’ voice dropped so low Nate couldn’t hear her.

“Louder,” Gabriella was relentless.

“They gave her a lab rat to hold, but it kept getting away,” Nate knew where this was going. Sarah clutched his upper arm. Simms stopped talking again.

“You will finish, you will tell us everything. You feel me in your head, don’t you?” Simms nodded. “Say it.”

“I can’t, please don’t make me.”

“I can turn your brain to mush. You will tell me everything.”

“Stovers arranged for them to give her a kitten to hold while they strapped her into an MRI machine. They measured her brain activity. From a purely scientific standpoint it was incredible. The results showed three times more brain activity as the kitten got weaker. When Alma realized she was hurting the cat she would struggle so much to stop touching the cat she would end up passing out. It was then the kitten would revive.”

“My God, you tried to have her kill a cat?”

“Not me, I wasn’t there. This was all Stovers idea. He had some crazed psychotic bastard working for him in Sandy Springs. He had me look over the data while I was working Nevada. I couldn’t believe it he was doing that to a baby.”

“Oh my God.” Sarah gagged.

“The experiment went on for hours, with Alma passing out each time, and the kitten reviving, until finally Alma went into a catatonic state. It took weeks for her to come out of it.”

“Were you able to isolate what she did? Are you able to in any way mimic her abilities?” Gabriella’s questions came out rapid fire, which amazed Nate because he felt the need to throw up.

“No, they never could. I want to make this clear. I was not part of what went on in Atlanta.”

“But they sent you the reports to analyze, didn’t they Ms. Simms?” Gabriella asked in a pleasant tone.

Sarah, Gabriella and Nate stared at the woman. She looked at them with an almost defiant expression on her face that soon turned to defeat.

“Yes, yes they did.”

“Tell us what else
they
did in Atlanta.” Just the way Gabriella asked the question made it clear she didn’t buy into Simms bullshit that her hands were clean.

“Stovers was finally convinced we had to use hypnosis or brainwashing to get Alma under their control. But it didn’t go well. They finally put her back in the MRI machine. Apparently when they tried to use the different techniques, some of those parts of her brain that should have been at rest would activate. They seemed to create a defense against both the brainwashing and the hypnosis. It went a lot slower than it would with a normal person. Stovers was furious.” Sarah’s nails that had been biting into his biceps, relaxed.

“What did he do next,” Gabriella asked.

“He figured if he started at an earlier age we, I mean they, could get the techniques to work. That’s why he worked even harder to find more candidates for the breeding program.”

“What do you mean an earlier age? Earlier than a year old?” Sarah asked incredulously.

Simms took a long pause. It was clear she didn’t want to answer, but knew she didn’t have a choice. “He was thinking to start when the fetus was invitro,” she whispered.

“Jesus,” Nate breathed.

“But first he needed to get Maricel or another healer pregnant,” she continued. “He was thinking you would be more powerful than Maricel.” She tipped her chin in Sarah’s direction. “He was fixated on you, he was sure you would produce a more powerful baby than Alma.”

“One more question. If it wasn’t working, why did they continue to keep her in the Atlanta facility?” Gabriella asked.

“Stovers said until they had a breeder, they would continue to experiment on Alma, try to perfect hypnosis and brainwashing techniques on her. At the same time, they could continue to see what her level of power was.” Gabriella was just as sickened as Sarah, she was just hiding it better. He hoped this tale of horror was almost at and end.

“So they continued to run experiments on her?” Gabriella asked, as Sarah clutched his arm so tight he thought she might cut off the circulation.

“I’m not sure, they stopped sending me reports. I recommended that due to lack of progress Alma be returned to the Nevada facility. At that point Stovers stopped sending me reports and I was told to focus on the fertility and memory loss drug therapies.”

“Do you know anything more that is of use to us?” Gabriella asked in a tired voice.

“I honestly don’t know.”

“We’re done here.” Gabriella stood and marched across the yard to the gate in the chain link fence. Sarah was trembling, and Nate helped her up off the bench.

“This was all off the record you know,” Kathy Simms yelled after them.

Nate spun around and rested his big fists on the table staring the woman in the eye. “But your e-mails, your files and all of your correspondence with the Atlanta facility has been confiscated. That’s on the record, now isn’t it?” His smile was all teeth. “Please don’t take a plea, I’m begging you lady. I want to see you go to trial. I want to be there. Unless of course one of Stovers minions gets to you first. That would be fine with me too.”

Chapter Eighteen

“Sarah, you can’t leave again,” Sierra grabbed her arm and practically dragged her into the nursery where Alma was staying. Sarah never saw Sierra so distraught. As soon as she saw Alma, she understood. Somehow the child pulled up the mattress of her crib and burrowed beneath it.

“Since you’ve been gone, she won’t let me feed her or change her diaper.” Sierra’s voice dropped down to a low whisper. “She’s stinky, I know she needs to be changed.” Sarah looked into the compassionate green eyes of her friend. Beneath Sierra’s gruff Navy exterior was a woman who didn’t want a baby to hear she smelled.

“When I try to use force to take her out of the crib she screams so desperately I just can’t bring myself to do it. I don’t know if it’s my red hair, my bad breath or the fucking lead lined gloves you forced me to wear. Before you left, I watched you take care of her, and it wasn’t the same. I mean, she would go absolutely stiff when you touched her, but she would still let you touch her…” Sierra’s words trailed off. They both looked at the tiny lump under the mattress.

“You did the right thing. I understand so much better now I talked to that…” Sarah stopped herself from using a word she never used in her life. “Come out in the hallway with me and I’ll explain.”

When she was done, Sierra used the word Sarah wanted to use to refer to Kathy Simms. “I can’t believe Nate didn’t climb over the table and kill her.”

“I think he plans to take the law into his own hands when it comes to Stovers,” Sarah whispered.

“Good. If he doesn’t, there are at least three of us who will.”

“I’m serious.”

“So am I.” Sarah looked into the redhead’s green eyes and saw she absolutely was serious.

Sierra peaked back into the nursery. “Can you help Alma? I’m going to go talk to the Chief.”

“I can get her fed and make her comfortable. As for helping her, it’s going to take time and thought.” Sarah watched as Sierra left the apartment. She went into the nursery and raised the mattress. Alma was on her tummy with her little butt up in the air. She turned her head and looked up at Sarah.

“Yep, it’s me. It’s time to get you cleaned up and fed.” Alma shook her head.

Sarah reached into the crib and Alma scooched into the farthest corner away from her.

“Honey, I’m going to pick you up no matter what. You know I am. So let’s make this easy on ourselves. If you rest easy in my arms, there will be less touching, okay?” Alma stared at her. Sarah tried again. “I’m like you, you won’t hurt me, I promise. I promise honey, you won’t hurt me. I won’t let you hurt me.” Sarah repeated the words until Alma finally nodded.

She swooped in and picked up the child and put her onto the changing table. She definitely felt Alma’s energy, but she was easily able to counteract it with her own now she knew what to expect. It would have been a cold day in hell before Sarah would have worn the gloves to save herself a little bit of discomfort.

“There, not too bad, now was it?” There was no response. Sarah went about the process of changing the diaper. She soon had Alma changed and fed. She adjusted the mattress and put her back into the crib. She dropped a kiss on Alma’s forehead and saw her look of surprise.

“Get used to it kiddo.”

****

“Tell me we’re going to kill the fucker!” Sierra shouted as the door slammed against the wall. Nate, Cyrus and Brice looked up from the conference room table to see Sierra storming across the room towards them. Even though she was much smaller, Nate had an urge to take a step backwards.

“Easy Lovely, we still need Nate in one piece, wait until the op is over before you kill him.” Sierra rounded on Brice.

“This isn’t funny, Scotty. Do you know what that sick fuck did to Alma?”

“Aye,” Brice nodded.

Nate saw the shimmer of tears in Sierra’s eyes.

“Then he needs to die.”

“Aye, he does. First we have to find him and we have a lead.” Nate watched as the big Scot pulled Sierra into the chair next to him. “Now, we were needing you anyway Lass. You know your way around the computer much better than I do.”

“Well yeah.”

“I think we found something,” Brice said.

“Not we,” Nate interrupted. “This was all your wiley Scot. I don’t know how his twisted mind works, but I like it.”

“Anyway, I ran a deep check on the financials of the FDA man Grainger and found some interesting things. On the surface he lives a regular life, but he is worth millions and millions in an offshore account. We need you to figure out where he’s getting his funds.”

“But you have an idea of where he’s getting this.” Sierra looked sideways at Brice.

“Oh yeah. My guess is that he’s a D.C. bagman for an arms dealer named Rankin. I don’t think Stovers was meeting with Grainger on FDA business, I think he was trying to sell things to Rankin, but we need your help to see if my guess is right.”

“Your guesses are always right, Brice. That’s your ability,” she grumbled. “Why don’t you just control my mind while you’re at it?”

“I might spank your arse, wench if you don’t do what I’m asking. Controlling your mind has absolutely zero appeal.” Nate watched as a slow smile crossed Sierra’s face, then she started to work on the computer. It took her less than twenty minutes to confirm Brice’s supposition.

“What a fucking dumbass. This guy cuts off people’s hands for sport. Stovers is out of his ever loving mind to be offering him things like mind-control nanotech and people who can suck the life out of you. If Stovers can’t deliver…” She trailed off and grinned wide. “I’ve changed my mind, this is absolutely wonderful.”

“Don’t get too excited Sierra,” Nate cautioned. “It just tells us how desperate Stovers will be to get his hands on Alma or anything to get him in this guy’s good graces.”

“I think it is about time to circle the wagons. I don’t like having Kota and Maricel in Texas,” Cyrus said.

“My thoughts exactly,” Nate agreed. “Kota has already arranged for them to be on the first plane out tomorrow morning. Of course Dona Alma isn’t going to be too happy but he says he’ll carry her if necessary.” Everyone laughed, knowing Kota was serious.

“So how do we flush out Stovers?” Cyrus asked

“We set a trap with bait he can’t resist,” Brice said.

“Not a chance in hell,” Nate yelled.

“No way,” Cyrus said slapping his hand on the table.

“What has you guys in such a snit?” Sarah asked as she walked in the room. Four sets of eyes looked at her, and immediately turned away.

“Oh holy hell, this is about me, isn’t it? What’s going on Nate Goodman?” Nate was glad to see as much as she wanted to know what they were talking about there was absolutely no compulsion in her voice except for that of a pissed off woman. He grinned.

“You better come clean or you will not like the repercussions.” Yep, totally pissed off woman, and she belonged to him.
Wasn’t he lucky?

“Brice just came up with some lame-brain idea, and your brother and I shot him down.”

“Brice, would you care to share with the class?” Sarah asked with her eyebrow raised.

“Nay, can’t say I would. I value my manly parts right where they are Sarah.” Sierra snorted under her breath.

“Well then, let me guess, this has something about me being put at risk. It has to be a good idea since Brice came up with it, so I want to hear it.” Sarah came over and spun the computer screen around and started reading. “Tsk, tsk, such a busy boy our Stovers.” She looked up at the people around the table. “So we want to use me as bait?”

“Aye,” Brice said at the same time the other three said no.

“Sounds to me like the ‘Aye’s have it,” Sarah said.

“You know, I think I have an idea that might just work and keep my manly bits in working order. Why don’t you have a seat, Sarah.” Nate pulled out the chair next to his and glared at the Scott. He damn well better come up with a better plan than using Sarah as bait.

****

Kota didn’t know which was worse, the two women who were crying and raging on the outside, or the one who was crying and raging on the inside. They were all in Maricel’s apartment, the door to the nursery was shut. Baby Alma was finally asleep. Gabriella told Maricel and her mother what Kathy Simms explained, and the two women were holding each other. They were alternating between weeping and calling for the deaths of everyone involved. Once again Kota was having trouble understanding everything being said.