Read Online The Brahms Deception by Louise Marley - Free Book Online Page B

days. The technician turned out to be a compact man with thinning hair and deep vertical lines in his cheeks. The lines gave him a mournful appearance, a bit like a basset hound. He appeared on Chiara’s other side and looked at Kristian above her head. “We gave her the warning, then reversed the transfer right on schedule. She just didn’t come back. Didn’t wake up.”
    â€œThere’s never been anything like this in any of the other transfers?” Kristian asked.
    â€œNo. And I’ve worked on all of them.” The man stepped around Chiara and held out his hand. “Elliott Bailey.”
    Kristian shook his hand. “Kristian North.”
    â€œDr. Gregson tells us you’re going after her.”
    â€œI’m going to try.”
    â€œYou know how the transfer works?”
    Kristian looked back at poor, plain Frederica Bannister, lying so still among her wires and tubes. The lost girl. “Yes, of course,” he said.
    â€œI’ll wake Max,” Elliott said. “He’s our PA.”
    â€œNow?” Kristian raised his eyebrows.
    â€œIf you feel up to it.”
    â€œI—well, sure.”
    â€œDr. Braunstein hopes this will all be resolved by tomorrow, U.S. time. Before Frederica’s parents go to the press.”
    â€œWhere are her parents?”
    â€œIn Chicago, at their home. Very unhappy, we hear.”
    â€œI can imagine. Well, then. I guess I’m ready.”
    Chiara frowned. “You are sure you’re not too tired?”
    He grinned. “I can rest on the cot, right?”
    She turned away, shaking her head, but she didn’t say anything more.
    It was a good thing, Kristian thought, that his mind had been already made up. Things moved swiftly. Max, a lanky, freckled young man, came in yawning and rubbing his brush of reddish hair. Elliott rolled in an extra cot, with its own set of wires and tubes and cap. Chiara pointed Kristian to a bathroom in the corridor. He scowled at himself in the mirror over the sink, and did his best to comb his hair with his fingers. He drank a cup of water while he was in there, and washed his hands. The rest, he told himself, would have to wait till he came back.
    He went back into the transfer room, and put himself into Chiara’s hands. She helped him lie back on the cot, adjusting the thin pillow beneath his neck. She inserted an IV and attached a blood pressure cuff, patching everything into the bank of monitors.
    â€œYour blood pressure is a little high,” she said. “Are you nervous?”
    â€œNope.”
    â€œAh. Bene .”
    Max and Elliott both bent over him, snaking wires over his shoulders, settling the cap on his head. It was cool and a little prickly, the sensors finding their way through his hair and onto his skin. Elliott said, “I’ve been working on the coordinates since you agreed to come, and Chicago sent me your file. Everything’s set.”
    â€œWhat time will it be?”
    â€œWe thought nine in the morning would be good. It’s the day after Frederica was transferred, because of our concern about the layering effect. You need to keep your distance from her. You understand that?”
    â€œYes. I’ll be careful.”
    â€œAnd it’s spring there. May.”
    â€œI know.”
    Max said, “Hey, you might get lucky, and observe some of the locals.” He clapped Kristian’s shoulder with the air of someone wishing a friend bon voyage .
    Elliott said, “You should be able to perceive Frederica. We’re not sure how it works—”
    â€œLike most things about the transfer process,” Max said cheerfully.
    Elliott scowled at him. “—but we sent two researchers to Magna Carta, and they could observe each other clearly.”
    Kristian said, “Yes. I read their reports.”
    â€œYou’ll observe her if she’s there, that is,” Max said.
    Elliott’s voice shook. “She has