Minders

CHAPTER 33

Good, you’re awake,” Curtis said, standing up as Sadie opened her eyes.

She was on her back, staring up at a matte gray ceiling, her wrists bound together. It was windy, and turning her head she saw blue sky and the tops of buildings, unobstructed by glass.

“Is this the Barrington Building?” she asked.

“Yep.”

“How did we get up here?”

“I had them turn on the freight elevator. I know the owner.” He chuckled.

“MRP?”

“Exactly.” He bent and slashed the cable ties on Sadie’s wrists. “Those were just for transport.” He flashed her a gun. “This is to make sure you behave now.”

Sadie’s heart was pounding. Her mouth had a bitter taste, and her lips were dry from whatever had been used to drug her. “I thought Serenity Services took me.”

“I asked to borrow you. I’m a patron of theirs.” He pulled her to her feet and stood her with her back to one of the squat square columns that lined the floor. “Don’t move.”

“What are we doing here?” Sadie’s eyes left the gun to scan the area the way Ford would, taking in the square columns, curled-up scraps of carpeting, and an empty water bottle rattling around. Nothing useful.

“I’m going to tell you a story,” Curtis said. He radiated restless anticipation, pacing back and forth in front of her, the gun in his hand. “Once upon a time there was a girl who saw a boy commit murder. By law and, even more important, by contract, she should have turned him in, but she didn’t. So now she has a choice. She can either call and report his crime to the police. Or”—he pointed the gun at the open side of the building—“say goodbye.”

All the gears in Sadie’s mind clicked into place, and she saw her chance. She looked from the side of the building to him and said, “Okay. Can I use your phone?”

Curtis handed it to her with a reassuring smile. “It’s the right thing to do, Sadie.”

Sadie shivered, staring at the screen. “I don’t know. Turning him in will destroy him. Destroy his whole family.”

Curtis became paternal. “You know you’re not doing his family any favors if you shield them from the truth of who he is. I’m not asking you to do anything but obey the law and the rules of Mind Corps.”

Sadie continued to stare at the phone screen. “Ford isn’t guilty.”

“You have no proof to the contrary.” His voice was soft, almost apologetic. “You really do have to tell them what you saw, Sadie.”

Sadie dropped the phone to her side but held it tightly in her hand. It was her only weapon, and she didn’t want to lose custody of it. “What if I say I wasn’t in my right mind?”

Still apologetic, Curtis said, “They’ll think it’s a metaphor.”

“But it’s not. I did see Willy get killed, but I wasn’t watching Ford do it. Willy knocked Ford out and while he was unconscious Catrina switched me from Ford’s mind to the killer’s.” She looked at him. “Yours. Tell me, Mr. P, did you enjoy knowing I was in your mind?”

“I did.” Their eyes met, and Sadie was repulsed. She couldn’t believe she had once found him so attractive.

Talking fast, so he wouldn’t see how she really felt, she said, “It was genius. You waved the truth about your identity in front of everyone’s eyes the whole time, but no one saw: MRP, Mr. P, Curtis Pinter. The true brains of the City Center operation. That’s how Willy got the information from the chips for his incentive program. He was nothing, a pawn. The Pharmacist is just a smoke screen. You were the only one who could have pulled this off.”

He smiled benignly. “You’re flattering me.”

Now it was Sadie’s turn to be apologetic. “I didn’t mean about the brains. I meant because everyone at Mind Corps is a Minder, so I couldn’t have been in their heads. Everyone but you. You’re just a chippy.”

For a moment his composure slipped, and he snapped, “Don’t use that word.”

“That’s why you’d never been in Syncopy,” she went on, stepping toward him. “Claustrophobia is just an excuse.”

He leveled the gun at her, motioning her back toward the column. He was in control again, calm and understanding. “What a busy mind you have. Unfortunately you can only tell what you witnessed. Did I mention it’s the law? Now make the call.”

“You’d really kill me?” Sadie asked.

He nodded. “I would. Revolution requires sacrifice.”

Sadie hadn’t expected that. “Revolution? What kind of revolution?”

“The end of crime and corruption.”

“Wouldn’t that be putting yourself out of business?” Sadie asked.

He gave her a wry smile. “The Pharmacist isn’t only a money making scheme. He’s a pilot program. A boogey.”

“A boogeyman? Like Bricolage deals with?”

“Exactly.” Curtis was suave now. He slid the gun into a hip holster and used his hands while he talked. “With the Pharmacist we created the ultimate boogeyman, a mysterious figure who’s powerful and vindictive and has the magical ability to read thoughts. By using information obtained through Syncopy we were able to radically increase the speed at which he gained power, until he was at the center of nearly all the criminal activity in City Center.” He paused, his eyes alight with excitement. “We’re now poised to turn City Center into a criminal nexus where researchers of every stripe can run experiments in a real-world setting on subjects who don’t even know they are being studied.” He was watching her and her reaction, closely. “We don’t have to stop at knowing what gets subjects’ attention, we can learn their intentions. This is the beginning of a new era in social research and aggressive philanthropy: the living laboratory.”

“A living laboratory,” Sadie repeated, trying to mirror his enthusiasm. If she could get him to think she was an ally, she might be able to get close enough to get the gun from its holster. “That’s why MRP bought so many buildings.” She remembered the guys unloading the truck that night in the alley behind Plum’s club. “You were setting up discreet research facilities in City Center.”

“Exactly.” His face lit up and he stepped closer to her. “You understand now, don’t you?”

“Yes,” Sadie told him. Three more steps, that was all she needed. “It’s an amazing vision. I can see why you couldn’t let peons like Willy or Ford interfere.”

He looked at her cautiously. “Do you mean that?”

She nodded. “This is bigger than individuals. I’d thought you killed James because he stole your treasure, but I now see it was because that kind of recklessness has to be contained.”

“And I’ll get the money back,” Curtis added.

Sadie was contrite. “By treasure I meant Plum. Your sister. How they were going to run away together.” She shook her head. “After everything you’ve done for her. To support her. You promised when you were children to give her everything, and you have kept your word.” She reached a comforting hand toward his arm, just out of reach. “It must have been upsetting when James threatened to steal her from you.”

Curtis smiled down at her, moving a little closer. “It was a betrayal. And it showed a worrisome lack of judgment on her part. But we dealt with it. It’s over.”

“You left James’s phone in her apartment so she would know what you’d done,” Sadie said, understanding it now. “What you were willing to do for her.” And what you’d do again, over and over, if she ever tried to leave, Sadie thought, remembering the look of fear on Plum’s face. “Is that why you kept Ford’s watch? To use the same way?”

“Exactly. I wanted her to know that I would do anything to take care of her.” Curtis said it simply, as if he were talking about taking out a loan, not murdering people.

Sadie sighed. “She’s lucky to have you.” She shifted, stepping slightly away from the column. She held his gaze, moving her hand toward the gun. Her fingertips brushed it—

“You’re pathetic.” The voice came from behind them, and they both swung around to see Catrina storming across the floor toward them.

Curtis seemed surprised and not entirely pleased. “What are you doing here?”

Sadie had the gun halfway out of its holster when Catrina batted her hand away.

“Cleaning up your mess,” Catrina said, and with one neat motion got Sadie by the back of her neck and began shoving her toward the edge of the roof.

She talked as she did it, squeezing Sadie’s throat for emphasis. “‘Trust me,’ you said, ‘I can control her. She likes me, she’ll do what we want. If he has the money, she’ll tell us. Think of it as protection, a way to guard our assets.’” Catrina was quoting Curtis, Sadie realized. The conversation she’d overheard had been about her, putting her into Ford’s mind. She was the protection.

Sadie was pushing back against Catrina, making their progress erratic, but they were unquestionably moving closer to the edge of the floor.

“It worked,” Curtis protested behind them. “We learned he knew more than we wanted him to. We learned he was a liability and had to be eliminated.”

Catrina twisted Sadie’s arm behind her back painfully. They were now a foot from the edge of the roof. “You said there was no chance the Committee would send her back, that as soon as she was gone we could kill him. But you didn’t get sent home, did you?” Catrina asked, jerking Sadie’s arm up and making her yelp. “So it was left to me to figure out how to fix it. Just like today.”

Sadie remembered being in the same building on her school trip. Remembered the wind. Remembered Pete shouting to her, “Hey, babe, come check this out,” and how he grabbed her and pulled her behind a column and started kissing her. How she’d kept her eyes open, staring at the space beyond the empty windows and thinking how easy it would be to just…

Let…

Go.

Not anymore. Now she wanted to fight. “If you kill me, it will all come out,” Sadie said as she struggled against Catrina’s strength.

“What will come out?” Catrina said, pressing forward, using Sadie’s arm as a lever. Her tone, her actions were chillingly deliberate.

They were less than a foot from the end of the floor. “The texts. From Curtis to you, ordering you to switch me in and out of his mind.” Catrina’s pressure let up slightly. “And the one you sent about how you couldn’t find Subject Nine and you were initiating emergency removal protocols.” Sadie nodded her head behind her to Curtis’s phone, which had fallen to the ground. “I forwarded them. If you kill me, someone will find them.”

“You idiot,” Catrina hissed at Curtis. She jerked Sadie’s arm up higher and pushed her right to the perimeter. “But it doesn’t matter. No one will believe it. You’ll be the girl who committed suicide. Too crazy to take seriously.”

The toes of Sadie’s shoes had air beneath them. Do not panic, she told herself as her heart began to pound and her throat closed. You’re not going to jump. You have to fight. Spots danced in front of her eyes and her knees rattled. “Bye-bye,” Catrina said.

And pulling Sadie with her, collapsed backward to the floor.

Sadie rolled off her and staggered sideways, gasping for breath. She stared at Catrina, who was lying on her back with one foot dangling off the building’s edge and something bright orange sticking out of her neck.

Curtis stood next to her. “I told you Miranda was a good shot,” he said, as Miranda Roque, sporting an elegant cream pantsuit and a shotgun under her arm, appeared from behind one of the columns.

Miranda looked at him sadly. “Go wait in the car.”

“But Moth—”

“Go,” she said harshly, and just like that, he went.

“Thank you,” Sadie said.

Miranda smiled. “I couldn’t let her kill the only person in five years to get into the subconscious.” She gestured with the gun. “Would you mind checking her pulse? Don’t want a murder on my hands.”

“Another,” Sadie couldn’t keep from saying.

Miranda rolled her eyes. “Yes, yes.”

Sadie bent. “It feels slow but strong.”

Miranda’s gaze rested on Catrina fondly. “I used the kind for antelopes, not cheetahs. She’s more prey than wild cat, I think, despite her nickname.” She looked up. “Interesting about names, isn’t it? We don’t realize how they define us. Your subject, for example. Ford Winter. Did you notice how many of his memories and emotions, especially the important ones, involved ice and snow?”

“They were linked to specific events,” Sadie pointed out.

“There’s a reason they resonated for him.”

“That’s—” A shiver swept over Sadie. “How did you know? And that I’d seen his subconscious? Have you been in his mind?”

“Always like to do a quick walk-through after a cleaning to make sure it looks okay. I’m afraid we had to remove all traces of you. Not just the past two days; we did a complete detailing to make sure there wasn’t any foreign matter inside. Emergency protocol.”

Sadie had been ready for that, knew they would have wiped Ford’s mind of her, but it still gave her a sharp pang of sadness. Nothing remained of what they’d shared, what he’d said or maybe felt when he was with her. She was gone from his life, irrevocably and completely, forever. “I expected that.”

“I figured,” Miranda said drily. “Don’t blame me. You knew the rules.”

“I did. But by those same rules, you know I have to report the murder I saw. And I have proof it was Curtis.”

“That’s why I’m here. I thought maybe we could come to an understanding.”

More gaps were filling in Sadie’s mind. “That’s why you went against the Committee and sent me back. To protect Curtis. You didn’t want me to report what I saw—just the opposite. You knew I’d never turn him in if I thought I was turning Ford in. Somehow you knew how I felt about Ford before I did.”

“It came off you in waves. You’re lucky. Not many people experience that.”

Sadie didn’t feel lucky. “Curtis was one of the Perfect Garden orphans, wasn’t he?”

“‘Thing of darkness I acknowledge mine,’” Miranda quoted. “He and Plum were. Babies, the last two. When the state closed down the Perfect Garden they didn’t even count to see if they had gotten everyone. And I was the one endangering children?” Her eyes had sparks in them. “They were such a delight. So curious and determined.”

“You implanted both of them with chips.” Which was why Willy hadn’t been able to find Ford when he spent the night at Plum’s, Sadie realized.

“Of course,” Miranda said. “How could I do it to someone else’s child if I wouldn’t do it to my own? And it seemed only fair to have a Subject running Mind Corps.”

Sadie thought of how many of her friends’ parents made exceptions for their own children without blinking. Sadie admired Miranda’s code, even if she couldn’t agree with its substance. Keeping her eyes on Miranda’s still handy gun, Sadie said, “You mentioned a deal.”

“Simple. You don’t hurt what I love, and I won’t hurt what you love.”

“Meaning I don’t turn Curtis in, and you leave Ford and the Winters alone forever?” Sadie considered it. Thought about Miranda’s version of justice, about how she was willing to go to any length to shield Curtis. “Substitute ‘protect’ for ‘not hurt’ and you’ll have a deal,” Sadie said. “You protect what I love, and I protect what you love.”

That earned her a flash of a smile. “Sadie, short for Sophia,” Miranda said. “The goddess of wisdom. Your parents named you well.”

“Now what happens? To Curtis?”

“He’ll take a vacation abroad. And of course all the killing and whatnot will stop. I never thought he was capable of—” She swallowed hard, and Sadie thought she was genuinely upset. “Mind Corps is still valuable. I’m not giving up on that.”

Sadie nodded. Pushed herself off the pillar and said, “Well, goodbye.”

Miranda tilted her head to one side. “For now. I have a feeling we’ll be working together in the future, Ames.”

Sadie shook her head. “I can’t imagine the circumstances.”

“It’s never a bad thing to have a good shot on your side.”

Sadie made her way to the freight elevator and paused before getting on. “How did you know where to find me?”

Miranda laughed. “You don’t think Subjects are the only ones who can be tracked, do you? Someone’s got to mind the Minders.”