Listen (Muted Trilogy Book 2) (28 page)

“You slept through most of the night. We’ll take you for a scan before your morning session with Joshua. I hope you ate well last night, because there won’t be time for a meal.”

Silence fell as they walked past the labs to an unmarked door, one Jemma didn’t remember having been labeled on the rough map from before her escape. Dr. Harris opened the door and led the way down a dimly lit flight of stairs. The corridor below was once again lit well, this hallway narrower than the one above. She tried looking in through the windows to either side, seeing glimpses of lab equipment before the guard jerked her closer to him. Her jaw tight, she focused her eyes straight ahead on the back of Dr. Harris’s salt-and-pepper hair.

They reached their destination; Dr. Harris held open another door while the guard led Jemma to the machine.

“Get on the table,” instructed Dr. Harris. Jemma hesitated, looking from the armed guard to the straps for a little too long; the guard decided to help, lifting her up and giving her a raised eyebrow, waiting for her to take over from there. Jemma swallowed, looking over her shoulder at the contraption clearly meant for her to rest her head in, then leaned back, situating herself. Dr. Harris closed the cage over her face, and Jemma inhaled, lifting her hand without conscious thought when she felt the guard touch her wrist. He pulled it back down to the table, securing it tightly. Jemma looked up at Dr. Harris, still at her head, who was, at least, meeting her eyes.

You don’t have to tie me down
, she mouthed, keeping her other hand close to her chest.

“I’m afraid we do.” Dr. Harris looked back down at his clipboard. “This should take about twenty minutes, and we can’t have you deciding you’re going to rebel on us again. It’s either this or we put you under again, and it’s really not healthy to keep being rendered unconscious.” He nodded at the guard, who moved to Jemma’s other side, taking her fist in his hand and forcing it down until he could wrap the restraint around her wrist and tighten it. Jemma screamed in silent frustration.

She heard footsteps as the two men left the room, then the door as it shut behind them. The table moved her into the machine, which hummed and whirred before it started working in earnest. Jemma closed her eyes as the clanging and grinding noises got louder, trying to breathe through pain and panic. Twenty minutes. She could get through this.

***

Jemma’s hands were still shaking as she settled into her chair in the lab, waiting for Josh to show up. The guard who’d strapped her down watched her from next to the door, his face impassive.

Regret had never been something that Jemma had really bought into. As with the other emotions she’d pushed away, it seemed pointless; what would it change to dwell on an immutable past? Now, though, she found it impossible not to at least wonder what might have happened if she’d done things differently, made different choices.

She and Jack should never have split up. They could have tried different options, together, like he’d wanted to. Any harm that came to either of them because of that choice was on her.

She’d dismissed, too easily, the option of going directly to the facility, but that, at least, might have presented her with some bargaining power. Maybe they wouldn’t have been as suspicious as she’d thought if she’d shown up, if they both had, willing to cooperate. After all, it had gotten her good results early on.

Instead she’d backed herself into a corner, alone, with few options and no power to negotiate, not if she wanted to make the type of progress she was hoping for.

She looked up when Josh entered, crossing his arms as he sat.

For several minutes, he just stared.

Finally, he uncrossed his arms, pulling his keypad from his pocket. “First, your test results. You look a little better off than we expected. There hasn’t been any irreversible damage yet, so we won’t need to give you any time off before we resume testing. Now.” His brow furrowed. “You could’ve ruined everything. I told you how important this was. I told you that you were our best bet, our best chance of succeeding, and you still tried to leave. Why did you do that to me, to us?”

Jemma felt her lips pull down to one side. Josh seemed to be taking her escape a little more personally than Dr. Harris had.

Josh leaned forward as he continued. “We were getting somewhere. We could have accomplished so much at the rate we were going. We were finally seeing results, and everyone was getting along, and everything was paying off, and you went and screwed it up. You’ve made them desperate, Jemma,” he typed. “They’re going to give me a little more freedom, look the other way a lot more, as long as I don’t do anything that might let you escape.”

Jemma mimed typing, then drawing, some way for her to respond. Josh’s green eyes flashed, and he shook his head.

“Not anymore. I’m in charge, now. Ready?” He smiled, the complete lack of malice in the expression at odd with his words, sending a chill up Jemma’s spine. “Let’s begin. You came back without Jack. Did you two have a fight? We already know he’s at the Virginia facility.”

Jemma stared. She’d come back intending to cooperate, but his question didn’t have quite as straightforward an answer as a yes or a no. Jack hadn’t been pleased by her decision to get recaptured, or by her willingness to let themselves get split up. They’d disagreed. They’d had what might qualify as an argument, for them. It hadn’t been the reason behind their splitting up, though, which seemed to be what Josh was asking. Then again, the real reason, that they’d wanted as much chance as possible of finding the cure and getting it out there, getting it to the world, wasn’t something Jemma could share, either. She shrugged one shoulder, and Josh visibly sighed.

“Refusing to cooperate isn’t an option, Jemma.” It was good, she decided, that she couldn’t hear his real voice when he said her name. She suspected it would have the same possessive quality his little touches to her arms and shoulders had been getting before their escape. He reached for the sensors to the monitor, his fingers brushing against her neck as he pulled her hair out of the way. Jemma fought to stay still, reminding herself that she was trying to cooperate, trying to help them get the information they needed to finalize the cure, to reverse the Event and save lives. She released a grateful breath when he didn’t linger after placing the electrodes along the bottom of her hairline before he leaned back in his chair and continued typing. “We’re working on trying to upgrade this machine, getting it to show us what you’re actually thinking, but for now, you know the drill. I can see yes and no responses, and I can see level of telepathic activity. Let’s try this again. Did you and Jack split up because you had a fight?”

His lips pulled downward as he studied the monitor. “If you didn’t have a fight, then did you end up separated by accident? I can’t picture you getting sick of each other that quickly.”

Jemma’s internal
no
was nearly instinctive, and she felt a surge of panic at the speculative look that crossed his face, at the spark that grew in Josh’s green eyes. She knew she couldn’t resort to the song lyrics she’d previously used to avoid giving the machine any response, but maybe she could focus on different questions, block out what Josh was asking, focus instead on something else.

“You split up on purpose, then? To what end? Not that that’s a yes or no question, of course, but you show more on your face than you think, you know. For instance, I can see you trying to think of something else right now. You two had a plan, didn’t you? You wanted to be at two separate facilities.” He glanced at the monitor and grinned, the boyish smile that set Jemma on edge. “It was your idea, wasn’t it, whatever you’ve got planned? I’ve never been sure what you see in him. He’s never done well in our tests, you know. I’m shocked you managed to get him out of here at all.” He paused, tapping his fingers on his table. Jemma focused on her breathing, on not reacting to his statements. She knew that Jack had been playing dumb, and it suited them for their captors to believe his act. “You know what? Whatever you’re going to try, I’m looking forward to it.”

She fought down another surge of regret, then took a breath, trying to ready herself for whatever might come next.

Turn the page for a scene from the final book in the Muted Trilogy,
Voice
.

The armed guard stood inside the door of the lab. Jemma took her seat next to Josh, whose tray was covered in medical equipment in addition to his tablet. He had his keypad in hand. There was no extra chair today, no indication that anybody else would be joining them, and Jemma tried not to cringe; her headaches always seemed to get worse fastest when she was working with Josh. She rubbed her arm as she looked out the large observation window, hoping Dr. Harris might make an appearance this morning.

She didn’t see anyone. She shifted her attention to Josh when he started typing, his words emitting from the speaker in his keypad.

“Yesterday, we were able to get most of your baseline tests back in order. I still can’t believe you disrupted everything like that by escaping, Jemma. I still don’t know what you and Jack are planning, either, with you coming back like this.”

He hooked her up to the machine that would tell him whether she was lying or not, once more letting his fingers linger a little longer than seemed necessary. She swallowed, forcing herself to stay still.

She could do this. She could cooperate with Josh, with Dr. Harris, with the guards. She could do whatever it took to help them develop the cure as quickly as possible.

“I’ve had the night to think,” he continued typing. “As I said, they’re going to allow me a bit more freedom, and I’ve had a few ideas about what to do with that. I suspect you might take issue with some of my plans, but maybe you should’ve thought of that before making a mess of things.” He turned away from her, running his finger along the instrument tray.

Her eyes flickered past the disinterested guard and to the observation window once more. Where was Dr. Harris? The older man had never been particularly soft or caring, but he had, at times, seemed invested in Jemma’s well-being, occasionally even almost protective. She’d accept his more typical, no-nonsense manner in a heartbeat before she’d choose to work with Josh.

“You think Dr. Harris will help you?” Josh was staring at her again, his green eyes bright, excited by whatever he’d seen on his tray. He held his keypad in both hands, typing quickly. “He hasn’t accomplished anything. I’ve been present for all the results, all the improvements. Pairing you up with the others, with Jack, it was all my idea, and they tried to punish me for getting passionate about it. Sure, he’s still technically my supervisor, but we’ll see how long that lasts now that things have changed.”

I’m trying to help
, mouthed Jemma, miming writing when he didn’t react, but he just shook his head.

“You don’t need to be able to communicate unless I have questions for you. I’ll get there. Patience.” He smiled again, the reassuring smile that was anything but, and reached around his tablet, picking up a sharp object that made Jemma’s heart race and her mouth go dry. Coming back here, alone, had been a horrible decision.

Acknowledgments

Again, this book didn’t write itself. I had the support of my wonderful family, especially my husband and my mom, and of my friend Susan. Without any of you, I wouldn’t have made it. Thank you, also, to the wonderful readers who encouraged me. A special thanks, too, to Elizabeth, my biggest cheerleader and most vocal supporter.

About the Author

Nikita went to school for creative writing, with the intent to become a copy editor. When she graduated in 2006, Nikita instead followed her husband to Italy, where they had a daughter.

After moving back to the United States a few years later, Nikita started tutoring high school and college students in essay writing, reminding her of her earlier passion. In 2013, she started writing, working on shorter pieces until, finally, she was struck with the idea for
Mute
, the first in the Muted Trilogy.

When she isn’t writing or reading, she is enjoying the outdoors in South Dakota with her family, practicing martial arts, or watching her favorite television shows.

Read more about Nikita and her upcoming novels at www.MutedAuthor.com.