Groom Lake by Bryan O Read Free Book Online Page A

they interrogated here.
    Then Owens walked behind her and fidgeted with something in his hand. She turned her head and saw a needle, just as he eased it into her neck. He then started connecting her to the equipment, pasting electrodes to her scalp and slipping several under her smock and around her heart.
    “I’m sure you’ve seen or taken a lie detector test before,” Owens said, affixing the final piece of equipment—a metallic device, resembling a bicycle helmet—to her head. “And you’re probably familiar with hypnotic exercises and psychological drugs like truth serums. I’m sure the Russians sold you their research reports on psychological intelligence—everything was for sale after the government collapsed. This equipment connected to you, it’s the fruit of America’s efforts in that field.” He paused to study Janice for the last time in her present state, staring past her beaten and expressionless face into her weary bloodshot eyes. “The mental notes you’re making about this location, my words, this equipment … they’re all a waste of time.”

CHAPTER 7
    At bedtime as a child, Ben Skyles’ mother often reassured him ghosts, goblins, spooks and other things that went bump in the night were make-believe. As an adult, he sometimes wanted to correct her about the spooks. They were real! They wore dark suits! And they worked for the federal government!
    Awaking, Skyles found himself in a small gray room with his chest, hands and legs strapped to a hospital bed. Cords and electrodes were attached to seemingly every part of his body, stretching through the air behind him like strings on a marionette, feeding his bio-signs to racks of equipment, an indicator to him that they suspected his mind was out of synch. He tried to remember how he got to this place, wherever he was, but his thoughts swirled around and around in his head, scrunched between obscure images—the moon, the stars, Earth, spiral galaxies—that ran on and on and on like a poorly constructed sentence, and he wondered why the moon didn’t have a name like Earth had a name—after all, nobody called Earth the planet —and then he wondered why he was wondering any of this at all. Rest was what helped slow his mind when it acted like this. He closed his eyes, taking advantage of his solitude, unaware if his confinement was the help he needed, or trouble…
    Skyles didn’t know the suit who had confronted him at the bar by name, but despite an ailing memory, he couldn’t forget the man’s face, those obscure glaring eyes, his large stature, and the smooth confidence in his stride. The same stride that now glided through the door of Skyles’ hospital room—or observation room, or jail cell. Skyles still had not determined where he was sequestered. He shut his eyes and feigned sleep, hoping to avoid the man in the black suit a while longer. The man’s footsteps were gentle as they approached the bed, then stopped and the room became as silent as when Skyles was alone. A few awkward seconds passed. Skyles tried opening his right eye enough to see, without making it appear open.
    “Quit pretending to be asleep. I saw your eyes open on a video monitor before I came in.”
    Skyles opened his eyes, searching for the camera.
    “It’s hidden. Don’t bother looking for it,” the man said in a monotone voice as he stared down at Skyles, offering no hint of his attitude toward him.
    Skyles made eye contact for a second, but then let his gaze retreat toward the ceiling. The man’s intent stare felt like heat from the desert sun against his face. Skyles wanted to say something to break the silence but was at a loss for words, and the man’s raspy voice made him uneasy, as if the devil himself was speaking.
    Realizing how uncomfortable his presence was making Skyles, Owens smiled and said, “You don’t need to be afraid of me, Ben. As long as you cooperate.”
    “Can you tell me what’s going on?” Skyles asked, finally making eye