Do No Evil (Aeon Trilogy Book 2)

Chapter 9

Nick struggled against the restraints around his wrists and ankles. His muscles were cramping as he sat in the automobile. He wondered if he'd been driven around like this previously since been captured by the government. But he still had no recollection of the two weeks immediately after the raid on Sanctuary.

"Sarah?" he called out.

"Quiet, Lal." He recognized the voice. It was one of the guards. A man whose names he'd never learned.

Or maybe he'd learned it prior to Laura's attempt to murder him, and now forgotten it. He wondered if his amnesia was truly the result of that attack, as his captors claimed. Perhaps they had used drugs or other interrogation methods that had damaged his brain.

Nick felt the world receding away into absurdity and despair. How had things come to this? He felt his breathing accelerating, and he was filled with formless anxiety. It was the beginning of a panic attack.

Every time he thought of Sarah, Nick felt the urge to use his MindWave to search for her. But his MindWave had been totally disabled by having the power source disconnected from the processors. Beyond his inability to search for Sarah, the sudden loss of access to the device had come as a painful shock. During the last eighteen months Nick had become accustomed to drinking in huge quantities of information, to creating imaginary worlds, to being able to be anywhere, do anything, on a moment's whim. Now all of that had been taken away, and he was suffering withdrawal symptoms like a junkie going cold turkey.

The fact that he was tied up and blindfolded in the back of a van going God knew where and Sarah wasn't answering him was enough to induce a wave of anxiety. He had grown too reliant on his MindWave to dissipate stress with cocktails of hormones that moderated his emotions. He needed to master himself again. He breathed deeply and thought of the silver cross hanging around his neck.

He reminded himself that Sarah would ever lie to him. Not anymore. Not now that she wasn't assigned to spy on him. And it was Sarah who'd told him about the satellite attack, so that had to be true. That meant that his memory loss was due to Laura's actions, not some torture at the hands of the government. So for now, he was safe. Relatively safe, at least.

His breathing began slowing to normal and he felt his anxiety ease.

"Could you please let me speak to Sarah?" Nick asked in a calm voice.

"Sarah's no longer with us."

"Why did she leave without telling me?" Nick felt a stab of nervousness coming back, and feared his panic attack would resume.

There was a pause. "Maybe she doesn't like you anymore. She's off with Michael."

Nick ignored the crude statement. He knew Sarah loved him. The guard was just taunting him. Michael wouldn't have looked at Sarah so furiously the day Nick woke up if Sarah hadn't loved Nick. Clearly Michael had feelings for Sarah, but she didn't return them. Because she'd chosen Nick.

Waking up to find Sarah holding his hand had been the happiest day he'd experienced in over a year. He'd long thought she had died in the New York riots, and that her death had been his fault, directly and indirectly. Directly because he'd angrily abandoned her on a street corner right before the riot because of some stupid argument they were having. Indirectly because the rioters were reacting to punishingly high energy prices that his company, Sparkwise Energy, had imposed on them.

He wondered when he'd see Sarah again. Certainly not until the car he was in reached its destination. "Where are you taking me?"

"Nowhere good for you."

He suppressed a laugh. "There's nowhere you could take me that's good for me."

"Then why ask?"

Nick silently admitted that the guard had a point. He fell silent and let the vibrations of the vehicle lull him into a light sleep. He was sure he'd dream of Sarah.