Chapter 24
The lobby was surprisingly easy to infiltrate.
Alec thought he would have been tackled to the ground as soon as he stepped through the glass doors but his entry didn't go quite as he'd expected- as had been the pattern lately.
He knew in his gut that at the very least he was going to encounter some trouble, and at the most he was walking into his end but he remembered what the past three years had been like without Parker and he wouldn't go back. Regardless of what the hair on the back of his neck was telling him.
This was how it was supposed to be, all or nothing. Parker… or nothing.
His thoughts drifted back to his time alone and his initial decision to break into Hasting's Institute. He couldn't imagine what he was thinking he would do with the photograph he initially set out to steal.
He'd been blinded by a savage need for revenge and anger and sadness and loneliness and every other adjective that described how utterly naïve he was to think he could bring down something so intricate and powerful on his own.
He functioned better in a team. He knew he was good but the balance the others provided allowed him to be great. He was a better person when his purpose wasn't self-serving. He was better with people whose strengths matched his own; strengths that were so different that their individual deficiencies just didn't matter when they were aligned.
And he was his best when he was with her.
He should never have agreed to any plan that involved her entering the hotel without him at her side, but the past didn't matter anymore. He was there and he was willing to do whatever it took to find Parker again.
The elevator glided to a slow stop as it reached the top floor of the hotel. The soft chime that announced his destination sounded ominously loud to Alec's ears.
He stared out of the open doors and straight ahead, down the brightly lit hallway. There was no movement- even the air seemed frozen somehow, and his senses stood at full alert.
He took a deep breath and stepped out. He wasn't armed and he had no plan beyond finding Parker or Sonia, whichever came first. But he was calm and in control; buoyed by the confidence that the universe wouldn't let him loose her twice.
His breathing quickened suddenly and he could feel his heart pounding a punishing drum beat against his breast bone.
Adrenaline, perhaps.
He clenched his teeth and sealed his lips to keep the rushing breath from coming out in loud panting bursts. The closer he got to the double door at the edge of the hallway the colder he felt. His heart was racing in his chest as though it would jump out and run on ahead of him. He noticed that his fingertips were cold and numb as were his toes, and his head was beginning to feel heavy.
The door went out of focus and Alec stopped. He shook his head and blinked and the door was solid once again. He swayed and his head drooped as though it was the heaviest thing on his body. He couldn't keep himself standing upright and his limbs fluctuated between feeling extremely heavy and extremely light.
Someone drugged him, he rationalized quickly. But how?
He fell to his knees and his head sought refuge on the beige carpet that lined the hallway floor. He couldn't move even if he wanted to. He realized his heart had slowed and he was rendered barely conscious.
This feeling was familiar.
The cold numbness. The lack of control. He was dying- again.
"I can stop this, Alec," the softly spoken words hovered above him.
In some distant corner of his mind he recognized Sonia's voice and the stubborn rage he felt toward her churned in his stomach.
He tried to urge his body to turn, to face her and fight but he no longer had any say.
"Take him into the room," she called to someone close by and Alec felt himself being hoisted off of the carpet immediately. The side of his face brushed roughly against the wooly beads of the knitted floor.
He was deposited into a chair and the realization hit him that the feeling was returning to his arms and legs. His heart rate was also returning to normal but his mind was still cloudy.
"Do you feel better?"
He recognized Sonia's chillingly even tone through his haze and it made his stiffen.
"Please be calm, Alec. I really have no desire to hurt you…," she offered further.
"Where's Parker?" he bit back, cutting her off. His anger spurred him on, gave him strength.
"You can see her soon," she began, "just as soon as you and I come to an understanding."
He could see her outline across the room, but his eyes still couldn't focus.
"What did you do to me?" Alec asked as he shook his head to clear it.
Sonia's silence unnerved him but Alec wouldn't let his thoughts wander too far or speculate too long. He had a mission and nothing would sway him from it.
"Where's Parker?" he asked louder.
Sonia straightened and walked toward him and he pressed his feet firmer against the floor in preparation for her anticipated attack.
But she didn't attack him.
She stopped short and flipped a switch which made the wall behind her transparent.
The sight made Alec's chest seize.
Beyond the wall was a small room and in the room, Parker was lying unconscious on a table, a black, swollen ring around her eye; scratches and bruises on her face and hands.
Alec flew out of the chair and grabbed Sonia's neck lifting her off of the ground and over to the transparent wall as easy as he would a wet towel. Her eyes bulged and her mouth opened in a silent gasping scream but a searing pain ripped through Alec's chest and made him drop her before he could act on the murderous rage that instantaneously consumed him.
He fell onto his back and clutched his chest as the pain paralyzed him.
"Don't…" Sonia sputtered as she clutched her throat and gasped for air, "…you ever touch me… again…or I will…kill you."
It was the first raw, truthful emotion Alec had witnessed from her.
The strangle hold on his chest eased and Alec took a slow, deep breath but he couldn't open his eyes. Opened or closed, all he saw was Parker lying there bloody and bruised and the anguish was worse than any physical ache that could have been inflicted upon him.
"You might as well kill me now," Alec said as he exhaled his deep breath, "because as soon as I get up I'm going to grab your neck again for what you did to her."
"You can save your own life- and hers- if you just do as I say," Sonia answered back, still massaging her neck.
Parker was alive.
Alec's eyes flew open.
"She's alive?" he asked softly, the hot rage he felt earlier gone with the choking relief that flooded him.
"She is alive," Sonia answered, "and she can remain alive if you do as I say."
Alec rolled onto his knees and pushed himself up off the ground as Sonia took a half step back cautiously.
"What do you want?" he asked her darkly but his eyes stayed on Parker's lifeless body on the table.
"First let me tell you the stakes," Sonia announced and Alec's focus fell on her once again.
"There is a small device at the base of Parker's skull," she continued, "with it I've been able to make her fearless, loyal, supremely intelligent…and able to withstand physical pain."
Alec was floored. He thought back to how Parker fought and behaved. Someone who didn't feel pain, who was relentless in their goals. The ultimate weapon. Sonia made Parker into an android.
Nausea roiled his stomach. He'd never hated another person before but the feeling he had for Sonia had to come close.
"It took us a full year to get her to the level of perfection she had reached…," she added but Alec had to look away; his head was swimming.
"…but within the matter of a few days you've managed to destroy everything we've worked toward," Sonia concluded.
Alec looked at her curiously, "What do you mean?"
Sonia sighed.
"Being with you deprogrammed her somehow," she relinquished the news grudgingly.
Alec turned to once again look at Parker's unconscious body. He walked to the glass.
"However," Sonia called, "the device is still capable of causing Parker extensive damage- fatal damage- should it be instructed to…explode, per say."
Alec turned to once again rip Sonia in half but he noticed her right fist clenched slightly and the phantom pain in his chest recalled the memory of what she was capable of.
Whatever she was doing to him was controlled from that hand. There was no way he could grab her before she could administer another paralyzing dose.
He sighed dejectedly, "What do you want?"
"I want Domino," she answered finally.
Alec couldn't believe his ears or the implication of what it meant, "What?"
Sonia ignored his question, "The mechanism itself was easy enough to duplicate. The only thing I don't have is the program that enables the machine. And that is what you and Parker will secure for me in exchange for your lives."
Alec's eyes narrowed as he looked at her, "Are you crazy? Do you even know what that machine is capable of?"
"That machine is capable of far more than even you may know, but its capabilities are of no consequence to you. All you need to know is that you have one day to secure the program and make it compatible to the machine my engineers have built or you and Parker will meet your untimely and very messy ends."
With that, Sonia took three back-steps out of the room and locked the door behind her.
She was barely gone before Alec flung open the door to the tiny room in which Parker was being held.
He rushed in but stopped as he stood over her, unsure of how or if to touch her.
He smoothed some hair from her forehead and his gentle touch stirred her to move.
A soft groan rumbled deep in her chest and Alec's eyes grew wide.
"Parker?" he called her name tentatively.
Another soft groan and her eyes moved beneath their closed lids but there was no other acknowledgement.
He bent low and kissed her cheek.
"Hey girl," he whispered close to her ear, "I thought I lost you again.
"You have to stop doing that," he smiled and leaned in to touch his forehead to hers, "you really gotta cut that out."
He could barely speak against the tightness in his throat.
But he realized that that was just one of his many problems.
Parker looked in no state to move far less steal something as heavily guarded as the Domino program.
He wondered how bad the damage had been and how was it that Sonia's programming failed so soundly.
"Are we dead?"
The hoarse whisper brought him to attention.
He raised his head and his eyes met hers. Through all the bruises he could still see that her expression was different, she was different.
He took a small step back and looked at her.
"Parker?"
This was his Parker. Not the other who could ignore weakness and basic human frailties like physical pain.
She didn't answer but a small tear rolled down the side of her face.
"She told me she was going to kill you," her small voice cut straight through him.
"She didn't kill me," he stepped closer to her again and reached for her hand, "I'm here, see? I'm flesh and blood. Right here with you."
She exhaled a soft rush of air and squeezed his hand, her non swollen eye growing wide.
"You were dead and then we were together and then I was here and a woman told me she was going to kill you," she spoke softly, quickly.
He could hear the confusion in her voice.
"Parker, I didn't die; and up to a few hours ago we were together. Someone's been playing us all along."
Her eyes narrowed warily.
"Do you remember us going to Ireland; finding Nate…Sophie?" he asked hopefully.
She shook her head no.
He could see that this was all becoming overwhelming.
Dammit. Not good. She was starting from base again. DAMMIT!
"Parker, I can't explain it all to you right now but I need you to trust me okay."
Parker nodded without hesitation.
His throat tightened again. If this was the last time he saw her this way he wanted her to know, to remember how he felt.
"I love you," he announced softly, and just as her eyes registered the words and her face softened into a reaction, he spoke again, "Sono."
Her eyes went blank immediately and Parker fell asleep.
He kissed her forehead and hoped they'd have time for him to explain it all.
Alec hated using Sonia's method but he couldn't think of another way to accomplish what they were tasked with when Parker's mind was still rooted in the events of that night three years ago. It would be too much for her to process. They didn't have the time.
"Aumento," he instructed and her lashes fluttered instantly.
She didn't move immediately and he grew anxious.
"Parker?" he called hesitantly.
She sat up quickly and turned to face him none of the previous softness or light still on her face.
"Sonia is going to kill you," she announced matter-of-factly.
He took solace in the familiarity of New Parker candor.
"So I've been told," he answered flippantly and she turned to look at him.
"Do you understand what's going on here, Alec?" She asked him as she eased herself off of the table and grimaced slightly.
"I understand that she wants us to steal the Domino program and sync it to her copy." He didn't tell her the threat Sonia made for their compliance.
"Alec," Parker walked closer to him, clearly limping and favoring her left arm. She reached out and put her hand on his chest, "Three years ago Sonia implanted a chip into your chest that can keep your heart beating or make it stop. If we don't give her what she wants she's going to kill you."
He stared at her, lost in the words she was saying.
He knew Sonia threatened to kill him but the certainty of his life ending took on new resonance somehow.
He felt his heart beating steadily in his ears; every new thump suddenly more precious than the one before.