The Sleepless Stars by C. J. Lyons Read Free Book Online

“I still don’t believe it’s even possible, this psychic communication—”
    “I’ve seen it.” Flynn surprised me by speaking up from her position guarding the door. “It’s real.”
    “Daniel is our last hope to get the information we need,” I added.
    Louise scowled at us each in turn. Finally, she relented. “If we’re doing this, then we’re doing it my way. I’ll be monitoring both you and Mr. Kingston every second of the procedure. Did you get the equipment I requested?”
    Devon nodded and stepped aside to reveal another stack of medical supplies. Among them, wireless EEG caps. “Daniel had it all, already stockpiled down in the tunnels. More reason to suspect he knew what Tommaso and Almanac were up to with their experiments.”
    Louise ignored him as she busied herself setting up the equipment that would allow her to monitor both mine and Daniel’s vital signs and brain waves. She started with Daniel, stepping back to observe his brain activity for a long moment. “Not much there except erratic theta spindles.”
    “Theta spindles—those are what you found on Angela’s EEG as well, right?” Devon leaned over his father’s still body to watch. “They’re also created by PXA. Should we give them each a dose? We have the reversal agent in case we need it.”
    He sounded so damned certain, gambling with my life. We’d found a possible PXA reversal agent at the Almanac lab before it exploded. Untested—at least by us—unproven, and who knew how unstable it might be? He also didn’t mention that one of the side effects of PXA was heightened pain sensation. So much so that Leo Kingston had used it to torture his victims before he killed them.
    Louise frowned. “Daniel’s much too weak to handle a dose of PXA. In his condition, it could kill him before Angela has a chance to—” She stopped abruptly, gave a swift laugh born more of fear than humor. “I don’t even know what the hell to call it. Psychic communication? Telepathy? Vulcan mind meld?”
    “I don’t know either,” I confessed. “But you should keep a close eye on Daniel. Every person I’ve touched like this, done this to, they’ve died.”
    Devon stepped forward as if trying to block my words, clearly unhappy I’d mentioned that unfortunate side effect. “But they were all dying anyway. You can’t blame yourself.”
    Louise scowled at him for a long moment before turning to me, this time taking my hands. Hers felt cold. Or maybe it was mine that were frozen numb. “Angie, think. Are you really okay with this?”
    “What if it was your daughter?” I asked Louise. “What if it was Tiffany they’d infected?”
    Her grip tightened, and she grimaced, her expression morphing from objective clinician to protective mother. It was a long, long moment before she answered. “I’d cut the bastard’s heart out.”
    “There’s no other way. The lab is destroyed, all of Tommaso’s research gone—”
    “Leaving Daniel as our only lead.” Devon nodded to his father’s still form. “I’m not going to force anyone to do anything. But—”
    “We can’t fight them if we don’t even know who they are or what they want,” I finished for him.
    “Or how they did it. Making prions communicable?” Louise shuddered. She turned to me with one of the wireless EEG caps. “Okay. Okay.” As she adjusted the cap over my hair, pulling the thick curls away from the electrodes and snugging it tight, she whispered in my ear, “If you do something stupid and die, I swear I’ll kill you.”
    We both laughed at the ridiculous threat.
    After swallowing a dose of PXA, I settled myself on the bed beside Daniel, taking care not to touch him. Louise fussed with the equipment, making certain it was recording. Back to the role of curious scientist.
    I felt the drug course through my body on a seek-and-destroy mission, rattling through every one of my nerve endings like a machine gun. I’d taken it before. Each time was a little easier.