to a decision. “What I’m about to tell you has to stay between us, Faith. No future articles by you or any of your contacts. Promise?”
“No.”
His mouth thinned. “Then—”
She raised her hand in a stopping gesture. “Hold your horses, mister. I’m not done. I promise not to share what you’re about to tell me unless I think the information needs to be released in order to save Toby’s life or the life of anyone else. I also can’t promise that my colleagues won’t eventually manage to ferret out the information on their own.” She’d lay odds that Siobahn would manage to find the truth if she dug hard enough.
Mark’s shoulders lowered and he nodded. “Okay, that’s fair.”
Suspecting that it was hard for him to confide in anyone, let alone a near stranger, Faith squeezed his hand.
He responded with a faint smile. “I’ll try to make this as short as possible. For several years the Department of Defense and the CIA jointly supported a lab with the goal of creating men with enhanced skills that would better suit their mission objectives. Increased strength for the DOD. More speed and improved mental abilities for the CIA. Little need for sleep. An inability to feel pain.”
“But…how?”
“I’m not sure of the details, but my understanding is that the scientists used a combination of steroids and other drugs, including custom created chemicals. There may also have been hypnosis, gene manipulation, and torture. They wanted a soldier who could carry out his mission without stopping to sleep or eat, and who was so focused on the objective that only his death would stop him.”
“That sounds like something out of a science fiction movie!”
“It gets worse. The scientists found a way to alter their subjects’ brains and make them susceptible to mind control.”
Faith shivered. Had anyone else been telling her this, she’d have brushed them off as delusional or too easily fooled. But Mark seemed too coldly pragmatic to believe in wild speculation. And hadn’t Toby’s note mentioned he might be turned into a creature that would kill her on their order? At the time, Faith hadn’t known what he meant, so she’d dismissed it as hype. Now, though, she was beginning to understand.
Mark pushed his lunch debris into a tighter pile, then brushed a few crumbs off the tabletop. “The head scientist at the lab, Dr. Mikhail Nevsky, was close to achieving his objectives, but there were deadly side effects. Insanity. Uncontrollable rage. Massive organ shutdown. Before he could perfect his program, Nevsky died in a fire that consumed his lab. However, he’d saved copies of his notes on a microchip.”
He turned his head to look at her. “Word got out about the existence of the chip. Every criminal and governmental organization wanted the microchip—most particularly the military and the intelligence agencies. Jamieson ordered me to find the chip and bring it to him before he’d give me the name of the man who killed my father. That offer was, of course, made before I discovered that Jamieson was the one responsible for my father’s death.” His expression hardened. “I countered with a demand that in exchange for the chip, he also let me into Kerberos.”
Faith sucked in a breath.
“Back then,” Mark continued, “I approved of what I knew of the organization’s mission. Kerberos’s goal is to strike at our country’s enemies in the most effective way possible, without regard to the law. I’ve seen too much damage done by short-sighted politicians to want to be shackled by their lack of courage. So I joined the hunt for the microchip.”
Mark tapped his fingers against the table. “However, it turned out that Nevsky’s right-hand man, a scientist named Dr. Leonard Kaufmann, had survived the fire and started his own lab. Funded, as your brother discovered, by Jamieson and Kerberos.” Mark laced his fingers through hers. “Faith, if Jamieson ordered Toby kidnapped and sent over
“No.”
His mouth thinned. “Then—”
She raised her hand in a stopping gesture. “Hold your horses, mister. I’m not done. I promise not to share what you’re about to tell me unless I think the information needs to be released in order to save Toby’s life or the life of anyone else. I also can’t promise that my colleagues won’t eventually manage to ferret out the information on their own.” She’d lay odds that Siobahn would manage to find the truth if she dug hard enough.
Mark’s shoulders lowered and he nodded. “Okay, that’s fair.”
Suspecting that it was hard for him to confide in anyone, let alone a near stranger, Faith squeezed his hand.
He responded with a faint smile. “I’ll try to make this as short as possible. For several years the Department of Defense and the CIA jointly supported a lab with the goal of creating men with enhanced skills that would better suit their mission objectives. Increased strength for the DOD. More speed and improved mental abilities for the CIA. Little need for sleep. An inability to feel pain.”
“But…how?”
“I’m not sure of the details, but my understanding is that the scientists used a combination of steroids and other drugs, including custom created chemicals. There may also have been hypnosis, gene manipulation, and torture. They wanted a soldier who could carry out his mission without stopping to sleep or eat, and who was so focused on the objective that only his death would stop him.”
“That sounds like something out of a science fiction movie!”
“It gets worse. The scientists found a way to alter their subjects’ brains and make them susceptible to mind control.”
Faith shivered. Had anyone else been telling her this, she’d have brushed them off as delusional or too easily fooled. But Mark seemed too coldly pragmatic to believe in wild speculation. And hadn’t Toby’s note mentioned he might be turned into a creature that would kill her on their order? At the time, Faith hadn’t known what he meant, so she’d dismissed it as hype. Now, though, she was beginning to understand.
Mark pushed his lunch debris into a tighter pile, then brushed a few crumbs off the tabletop. “The head scientist at the lab, Dr. Mikhail Nevsky, was close to achieving his objectives, but there were deadly side effects. Insanity. Uncontrollable rage. Massive organ shutdown. Before he could perfect his program, Nevsky died in a fire that consumed his lab. However, he’d saved copies of his notes on a microchip.”
He turned his head to look at her. “Word got out about the existence of the chip. Every criminal and governmental organization wanted the microchip—most particularly the military and the intelligence agencies. Jamieson ordered me to find the chip and bring it to him before he’d give me the name of the man who killed my father. That offer was, of course, made before I discovered that Jamieson was the one responsible for my father’s death.” His expression hardened. “I countered with a demand that in exchange for the chip, he also let me into Kerberos.”
Faith sucked in a breath.
“Back then,” Mark continued, “I approved of what I knew of the organization’s mission. Kerberos’s goal is to strike at our country’s enemies in the most effective way possible, without regard to the law. I’ve seen too much damage done by short-sighted politicians to want to be shackled by their lack of courage. So I joined the hunt for the microchip.”
Mark tapped his fingers against the table. “However, it turned out that Nevsky’s right-hand man, a scientist named Dr. Leonard Kaufmann, had survived the fire and started his own lab. Funded, as your brother discovered, by Jamieson and Kerberos.” Mark laced his fingers through hers. “Faith, if Jamieson ordered Toby kidnapped and sent over
Similar Books
