The Key to Fear - Kristin Cast Page 0,29
gurney around the second corner. The lab was at the end of the hall. The last door on the right. One hundred and fifty paces ahead.
Aubrey’s chest lifted and her stomach puffed with air. Her small feet twitched and her tiny hands gripped the bedding as she sucked in ragged breath after ragged breath.
Adrenaline ripped through Sparkman’s veins and she took off. The one hundred and fifty paces flew beneath her and the gurney in a blur of white tile. She halted just before the entrance to the lab and squeezed her boxy frame between the gurney and the door. As she slid her cuff under the scanner and waited for the door to slide open, the hairs on the back of her neck bristled. Sheets rustled behind Sparkman, and Aubrey’s breathing changed. It now slipped out of her as smooth and easy as the ocean swept against the shore.
Sparkman pressed her fists together, cracking each of her knuckles, as she turned. Aubrey’s plastic handcuffs hung limply from the bed as she sat at the head of the gurney, knees pulled to her chest and secured by thin arms. The neck of her hospital gown sagged down around her bare shoulders and she shivered as she buried her chin against her legs.
Sparkman’s jaw slacked and her stomach clenched as Aubrey blinked up at her. A band of violet ringed the girl’s pupils.
“Tell the Doctor,” Patient Ninety-Two lifted her chin so as not to muffle her words. “Tell the Doctor they’re coming.”
The door hissed open behind Sparkman as Aubrey Masters collapsed against the gurney.
Preston Darby had gotten to Blair. Strike that. Cath had gotten to Blair. Gotten under Blair’s skin when she said that Council Leader Darby could come after Denny.
Blair tapped the pointed toe of her pump against the corner of her desk and bit down on her fingernail. A jagged chunk tore free and she clenched it between her teeth.
Cath had been getting under Blair’s skin for more than a decade. Blair’s adoptive mother would toss out a small idea that stuck to Blair and festered and festered until she could feel it moving and breathing within her.
He can make your life more difficult. And Denny’s.
Those two small sentences now had lives of their own.
Blair bit off another chunk of her nail, wincing when she drew blood. She forced her hands into her lap and put pressure on her pulsing nailbed.
“Holly.” She cleared her throat and sat up a little straighter. The hologram wasn’t a real person, but Blair didn’t trust that a conversation with Holly would always only be between the two of them.
“Yes, Ms. Scott?” Holly materialized in front of Blair’s onyx desk, her hair and clothes and smile all perfect where she stood on the plush throw rug.
A twinge of jealousy clawed at Blair’s chest. Envying a computer’s flawless, human-made image was illogical—Blair knew that—but envy reared its green head nonetheless. “Call my brother. When he answers, put the call through to my office comm system.”
“Right away, Ms. Scott.” Holly’s eyelids fluttered as she contacted Denny.
It wasn’t that Blair was opposed to using her own personal comlink to reach her brother. Since the update, the tech was more user friendly than it had ever been. She just didn’t particularly like people talking in her head. She had enough to plot and sort through without the extra chatter.
Blair pressed her palms against the cold onyx slab and stood. Her shadow spilled onto the black surface of the desk, and the vase sitting on the edge, and pooled onto the rug and through Holly’s feet. Through them. Because, no matter how much Blair’s eyes tried to fool her, Holly’s being was nothing but ones and zeros. Her “mind,” however, all the secrets Holly held, that’s what Blair should truly envy.
Holly’s eyelids opened slowly, evenly. “Unfortunately, I’m unable to contact your brother. I’ve attempted to reach him three times and received an error message each time.”
Blair’s heart skipped and she lowered herself onto the edge of her chair. She stammered and pressed her hand against her chest. “What could cause this type of error message?” She released calm and steady breaths. Preston Darby couldn’t act without cause. Blair’s brother might not be as driven as she was, but he was no troublemaker. He was her sweet little Denny. Everyone who met him loved him. And if they didn’t, Blair Scott would burn them to the ground.
“The error is most likely a result of an incomplete chip update.” The ends