Chapter 37

Steve and Mark both hoped it had just been a random utterance as Jaime had been drifting off...but when she woke up, there it was again, in slightly altered (but even more determined) form.

''We're gonna get him, Steve! And...I'm gonna help!''

''Out of the question!'' Steve told her. ''I can't even help right now...and I'm not flat on my back in a hospital bed.''

''You're in no condition - either one of you - to be out hunting a madman,'' Mark chimed in.

''Well, I know that!'' Jaime told them both. ''But we can work on it, right?''

Mark noticed that she was sounding more like her 'normal' self already...but wondered if that was at least in part because she was avoiding the very subject she needed most to discuss (in order to be truly healthy again). ''Of course, we'll work on it,'' he responded. ''But you have to be patient with yourself, Jaime and -''

''And there's no time for...being patient with myself!''

It was Steve's turn to try and reason with her. ''Sweetheart, the best way for you to help this investigation is to listen to Mark - and to Michael - and work your way through this. Maybe along the way you'll remember something that we can pass along to the field teams. But Mark's right...you need to take it slowly and -''

Jaime was having none of it! ''You can't sedate a healthy patient, right?'' she demanded of Mark. ''It would be unethical.''

''But I can - and would- sedate someone I felt was in danger of doing something irrational that would place them at risk of serious harm.''

''Okay. I'll give you that one,'' she said (still sounding quite sensible and in complete control of her emotions). ''But the first step, then, is still to get me healthy again, right?''

Mark couldn't suppress a (slight) smile. ''Slowly and carefully, yes.''

''Great! So let's get started.''

Steve leaned in closer to the bed but stayed quiet, sensing that the rapport between doctor and patient was what was most important now. He was simply there for moral support, when needed.

''Where would you like to start this time?'' Mark asked.

''Well, I guess the best shot at coming up with anything usable,'' she ventured (still sounding more like an OSI operative than a badly-weakened patient), ''is the time I was alone with him...right?'' Without waiting for an answer, Jaime closed her eyes and began forcing herself back into memories she would've much preferred to leave forgotten. When she opened her eyes again and tried to speak, the change was dramatic - and alarming. Her face instantly paled several shades, her eyes had filled with tears that were already streaming down her cheeks and her body quivered with raw terror. She was about as far as she could get from the fiery determination she'd exhibited just moments earlier; she even seemed to have grown smaller in the bed (as if trying to shrink away from what her mind was showing her).

Mark almost stopped her right there (while she was still struggling to get out the first few tortured words) but the monitor readings were good so he decided to let her go...and see where she took them. Jaime had to pause every few seconds to catch her breath, choke back a sob and find another speck of courage to continue...but continue, she did. It was obvious to both men that she was no longer 'present' in the room with them; Jaime was reliving (and feeling) every moment of what she related to them.

She started by talking about the last part of the van ride...and the daunting realization that 'The Drill Man' was still alive. They'd chloroformed her again - for the 4th time - when they reached their destination and when she woke up, she'd found herself chained in that dental chair...all alone. She described her surroundings and how (when she simply couldn't look at the devastation any longer) she'd closed her eyes...and heard his voice. He had forced her to open her eyes with cruel jabs of his knife and even crueler verbal jabs, taunts and dark, vicious threats.

Steve could hardly bear to listen as Jaime recounted (for the first time to anyone) just how Kingsley had forced an audible reaction from her during the phone call that had been designed to lure him in, too...

Mark saw the monitor readings begin to drift off-course, decided Jaime had done enough for now...and told her so, making sure to praise her efforts as he stuck the needle into her IV. ''It was...so awful there...'' she concluded, the grogginess already setting in, ''that I couldn't...even look at it...but he...he was...right at home...''

Nemesis gathered every food wrapper and every trace that he had ever been there from the floor and threw them into two large bags that he'd take with him in the morning. His flunkies could dispose of them in a dump somewhere, leaving no trace of himself, no sign that he'd ever returned to the place that felt most like 'home'. His prototype was tuned to maximum strength - as was the actual mind control device - and tomorrow he would set the best part of his plan into motion, laying the groundwork for fireworks the likes of which the OSI had never seen...and from which they might never recover!