weren’t for Charlie and the girls…”
He would be in a hole somewhere, doing what he was attempting to keep Erin from doing. Ian would invest the rest of his life in killing one woman. “And if Case didn’t have you and Sean, he would be lost, too. Ian, you’re doing what you have to do. There’s no judgment from me. If everyone knew, they would pitch in.”
“They can’t know. I don’t even like you knowing, but I trust you not to give it away.”
Kai knew how to keep a secret. “It’s not an issue. Now why did you need to talk to me?”
His shoulders eased down marginally. “It’s about Mia Danvers. She’s been talking to some interesting people lately. Hutch pulled her phone records. She’s been calling a number in Argentina. I need to know who she’s talking to. I need to listen in on that conversation the next time it happens.”
“Li’s in Argentina, isn’t he?”
Ian nodded as he slumped into the big chair behind his desk. “Yes. It’s the last known location of a medical group called Project Remembrance. It’s a small group funded by a known Collective company. They move around doing research on memory and how global and political conditions affect neurological function. What they’re actually doing is something very different.”
He’d read the reports. Normally he wouldn’t, but he’d insisted in this case because of the stress damage the operation had caused on members of the team. He’d also insisted every single person who’d been there come in for sessions. Some had been surprisingly willing to talk. Case was angry, but he’d sat and talked about his brother and the hole in his life. Erin had been utterly shut down until Kori broke through to her. At the London offices, he was coordinating with a fellow psychologist Damon Knight had hired to help the other members of the team.
Ian had refused all sessions. He’d handed his girls over to Alex and Eve and disappeared into Sanctum with his wife for two days. The club had been locked up and when he’d come back out, he’d been calmer, more focused. Charlotte was Ian’s therapy.
“I suspect they’re testing out the time dilation drug Dr. McDonald used on Ten.” Tennessee Smith was a former CIA operative who now worked for McKay-Taggart. The op had been his and it had gone straight to hell. Hope McDonald was something of an evil genius. She’d designed a drug that tricked the brain into thinking time had passed, time that Hope filled with the experiences she chose to give the subject. In Ten’s case, it had been days of pain and torture all wrapped up in a single dose of her drug.
Kai worried that even if they found Theo he wouldn’t be the same smiling, happy man who had been taken. That drug would twist his soul.
He should do some serious research because if Theo was alive, he would need help reintegrating into the real world. They all would.
“Yes, I’ve had reports that Hope is up to her usual tricks. By the time Li got to Argentina, they had moved on. He found their base of operations.”
“Did he find evidence that Theo had been held there?”
Ian shook his head, his eyes infinitely tired. “No. The whole place had been cleaned from top to bottom.” Ian was quiet for a moment. “Am I being too optimistic? There were bloody sheets found at McDonald’s place in the Caymans. I had them tested.”
“And the blood was Theo’s,” Kai surmised. “Given that Hope McDonald is a gifted surgeon and she had an obsessive interest in your brother, I think we can say there’s a chance that she saved his life and now she’s taking it again. Ian, if she’s giving him that drug, she’s basically reprogramming his brain.”
“I know that. I also know that once we get him off the shit, he should remember who he is. I can’t leave him.” Ian’s hands fisted at his sides as though they needed to hit something, anything.
“I’m not saying you should. I’m simply preparing for every eventuality. You have to understand that finding Theo and bringing him back won’t be the end of the problems. He’ll need medical and therapeutic care, and I need to be ready for that. I know you didn’t want to bring me into this, but unless you’re planning on bringing in another therapist, I need to plan now. Has Eve thought about a possible course of treatment? There are people working in the field she