Heart of Brass by Kate Cross Read Free Book Online Page A

yours, it is perhaps best to do a little investigative work before we tell ourselves you are regaining your memories. Now, in the chair, please.”
    This time Five did as he was instructed. He sat down in the chair and tried not to drive his knuckles into the doctor’s scarred face as the man closed one, then the other shackle. He was now totally at the mercy of another. The realization brought a thin layer of sweat to the back of his neck.
    “Any other concerns I should know about? Any idea why you were unable to achieve your objective last evening?”
    He leaned his head back against the padded rest. “I had my hands around her throat and she woke up. She said…” He frowned, not wanting to give the name away. “She spoke as though she knew me. I felt as though I might have known her too.”
    “But that is impossible,” the Doctor argued, piercing the skin of Five’s arm with a needle. Five watched as the plunger was depressed, releasing God-only-knew what into his blood. “She is a countess, and there is no way a man such as you would have ever known a woman of her social stature.”
    That was true, but it didn’t change that she had known him. “It threw me off-kilter. I was told to retreat, and so I did.” He looked down at his shackled wrists as he spoke, unable to look the other man in the eye as he lied. He had run because she scared the hell out of him, not because he had been told to.
    The world tilted slightly. Five blinked as the floor seemed to sway beneath him. Christ, what was in that syringe? He opened his mouth to ask, but his tongue refused to work.
    “She won’t be able to discombobulate you so easily next time. Close your eyes please. You might feel a slight discomfort—”
    The rest of what the Doctor said was lost as white-hot pain lanced through Five’s mind. It was as though someone had literally set lightning loose in his head, so bright was the flash. His body arched, limbs straining against the restraints as his brain burned. His own cries echoed in his ears, reverberating throughout the room.
    Writhing, Five fought as the pain intensified. It felt like needles of ice piercing his brain, as though his mind was a collection of butterflies being pinned for exhibition.
    Again and again the needles stabbed until he couldn’t take anymore. The pain and the drug finally took their toll and he faded into sweet, welcoming darkness.
    When he woke, the Doctor was sitting on a stool by the table not far away, watching him and sipping a cup of tea.
    “How long was I asleep?” he asked.
    “Not long.”
    He tested the shackles. He could snap them if he wanted. “May I leave now?” He didn’t like the Doctor. He didn’t know why, but the man made his flesh creep.
    “In a moment.” The Doctor set his cup on a saucer and rose to his feet. “I want to ask you a few questions first, just to make certain you are feeling better.”
    “Better?” He scowled. “Was I sick?”
    “A little,” the small man replied, clasping his hands behind his back. “What is your name?”
    “Number Five,” he replied with a scoff. Did the man really think he wouldn’t remember who he was?
    “Have you ever been to London before?”
    “No.”
    “Has anything you’ve seen here seemed familiar to you?”
    “No.” He’d only been in town for…a day? Or was it two? And seeing the sights hadn’t been high on his agenda. “Are we finished?”
    The Doctor made no move to unlock the shackles. “Almost. What is your mission while here in London?”
    “To hunt down the woman who murdered Victor Erlich three years ago.”
    “Arden Grey, Lady Huntley.” The smaller man’s eyes narrowed, as though looking for some kind of reaction, and then widened again. “What are your orders when you find her?”
    Five looked up, a slow smile of anticipation curving his lips. “To kill her.”
    The murdered girl was identified as the daughter of Baron Lynbourne. Her name was Angeline, and she had been eighteen years