Parallel Lies

Sabrina studied him, again trying to figure out what had impressed her uncle enough to give this guy her father’s job. Zack was dressed in faded jeans and a navy-blue polo shirt, barely disguising a good, lean build. His forearms in particular were pure muscle, all of which would make him a good bodyguard, she conceded. But head of Perimeter operations? No way.

It was discouraging, but she reminded herself all she really needed was background information, not “Sully level” skills. So she gave him a perfunctory smile and said, “The guy’s name is Johnny Miller. He’s an attorney. Supposedly with a tax firm. He’s been dating Shelby, aka Michelle, for a couple of weeks. They took off on a trip and I haven’t heard from her in almost four days. We’ve never been out of contact for that long.”

“She didn’t say where they were going?”

“Some sort of tropical island. He wanted to surprise her.” Sabrina bit her lip. “It all happened pretty quickly. And it seemed innocent. It probably is. I hope I’m overreacting, but, like I said, we keep in touch. Always. No exceptions. Four days for us is like a lifetime.”

Theo cleared his throat. “It sounds like she’s in love.”

“Head over heels,” Sabrina confirmed. “But even so, she’d keep in touch. She even told me she would. Listen.” Rummaging in her purse, she pulled out a recorder disguised as a pen. “She left two messages on my answering machine. I rerecorded them on this.”

“Wait!” Theo arched an eyebrow. “That’s Perimeter-issue. Where’d you get it?”

“It was a gift from my father.”

“You weren’t supposed to take anything with you to RAP that night. Clean slate, remember?”

“Dad trained me better than that,” she said with a shrug. “I took the things I needed to protect Shell. We couldn’t know for sure whether Adonis Zenner would come after us next. I had to be ready.”

Theo was clearly struggling not to smile. “I escorted you personally. All you had were the clothes on your back.”

“And the kitten,” she reminded him, biting back a smile of her own. “The pet carrier had a false bottom. Big enough to hide a few tools. And my gun, of course.”

“Are you armed now?” Zack interrupted, eyeing her purse.

“None of your business.”

“Actually, protecting me is part of Zack’s business,” Theo told her gently. “I don’t allow guests to carry weapons in my home.”

“It’s outside. In the trunk of my car. Frisk me if you don’t believe me,” she added in Zack’s direction.

“That’s not necessary.” Theo stepped between his two visitors. “You were going to play a recording for us, weren’t you?”

“Right. There are two messages, both from Shell.”

Sabrina pushed the switch, and Shelby’s recorded voice said, “Hey, Brie. Pick up if you’re there. I was hoping we’d get to say goodbye. Johnny’s whisking me away for a week of lust on some top-secret tropical island. We’ll be incommunicado, but I’ll call you as soon as I get home. Take care. We love you!”

The first call disconnected, then a second message began.

“Breezie?” Shelby’s voice was hushed. “I’ve only got a sec. Johnny was in the room before, and he’s really hot on this incommunicado thing, so I’ve been pretending to go along. But obviously I’m going to call you. And I’ll have my cell with me, so leave me messages, okay? I know I’ll miss you. Plus, I’ve been getting a funny feeling lately—like in the Dad days. I’ll be worried if I don’t hear from you. Watch your back, okay?

“But don’t worry about me,” Shelby’s voice continued, “because I’ll be with Johnny, so I’ll be safe. And happy. Sooo happy. Can you believe how great he is? And before you roll your eyes, I’m not just talking about the sex. He’s so different from other guys. Doesn’t just go to sleep when he’s done, you know? We stay up for hours afterward, talking about everything under the sun. It’s so—oops, I hear him coming. Gotta go. Love ya!”

Sabrina switched off the recorder, trying to keep a cool head. But the sound of Shelby’s sweet, trusting voice had brought a lump to the older sister’s throat again, just as it had every time she’d listened to the messages.

“How long ago did you say she left?” Zack prodded.

“It was Saturday morning.”

Something flickered in his green eyes and she knew that even a jerk like Zack Lansing thought four days without a call was too long.

But she wanted him to be wrong, so she insisted, “Shelby doesn’t have her cell phone with her. I know that because yesterday I finally began to panic, so I went to her house. Her phone was lying right on the kitchen table. The innocent explanation is that Johnny took it out of her purse when she wasn’t looking. Because he wanted her all to himself. She didn’t realize it was missing until they were already in the middle of nowhere and now she can’t call even if she wants to. Or something. But…”

“Take it easy,” Zack advised. “We’ll check the guy out. We’ve probably got information on him already.”

“Really?”

“Sure. We don’t stalk you or anything, but we’ve always kept tabs.” Turning to Theo, he asked, “Where’s last week’s report?”

“We don’t get weekly reports on the girls anymore,” Theo told him with a wince. “Just monthly ones. The next one isn’t due for a few days.”

“Monthly? I never authorized that.”

“I know,” Theo replied. “I did.”

Zack’s eyes flashed and Sabrina thought he was going to lose his temper again. Then he shifted direction, literally and figuratively, and pushed a series of buttons on the phone on Theo’s desk.

After three rings, a recorded voice said over the speaker, “You’ve reached Connor Boyle’s message service. Leave your name and number and I’ll get back to you.”

“Connor, it’s Zack. Where the hell are you? I’m at Theo’s and we need to talk right away. Call back on his home number, and make it quick.”

Breaking the connection with a flourish, Zack gave Theo a scowl. “That guy never answers his phone. What the hell are we paying him for?” Without waiting for a response, he asked Sabrina, “Where did Shelby meet this Miller guy?”

“At my house.”

“Huh?”

She shrugged her shoulders. “It’s a nice story, actually. Like she said in her message, he’s a sweet guy. And he’s probably harmless. But I had to know for sure. So I came here.”

Theo gave her an encouraging smile. “We’re glad you did. Aren’t we, Zack?”

“Yeah. Thrilled. Let’s hear the sweet story.”

Sabrina settled into a gray-velvet wing chair. “A few weeks ago, my cat disappeared. He does that a lot, so I didn’t take it too seriously. But after a week passed with no sign of him, I started posting notices around the neighborhood. The next day, Johnny came to my door with Zorro. That’s the cat’s name. Anyway, he had a cast on his leg. Zorro, not Johnny,” she clarified sheepishly. “Johnny explained that he had found him a week earlier, lying by the side of the road, hurt. So he took him to the vet.”

“Miller lives in your neighborhood?”

“No. He was just visiting his sister in Sacramento. He’s from Seattle. Apparently he was out jogging when he found Zorro. Anyway, I was grateful to him. Obviously.”

“Obviously,” Zack drawled. “Go on.”

Sabrina wasn’t sure what he was implying, but she was sure she didn’t like it. Turning away from him, she addressed her uncle. “I invited him in. He stayed for dinner and we had a lot of fun. He seemed like such a nice guy.”

“He probably is,” Theo told her. “Your father raised you to be a good judge of character.”

She smiled in genuine relief. “Thanks, Uncle Theo. I hope you’re right. Even now, looking back, I can’t imagine a nicer guy than Johnny. We had so much in common. We talked and talked, long into the night. I was coming down with the flu as it turned out. Otherwise—” She flushed but admitted, “Who knows what might have happened? But as it turns out, I was too sick to be even remotely attractive. So we just talked. About a million different things. Then the next day, when Shelby heard how sick I was, she came over to take care of me. Johnny came back to check on me, and they hit it off. Like an inferno.”

Sabrina stared down at her hands, suddenly embarrassed. “Just listening to myself, I can imagine how I sound. Jealous, right? But I’m not. I guess I’m just overprotective. The truth is, she found someone. Someone terrific. And he wants to spend some time alone with her. Sounds like a victimless crime, right?”

“I have a question for you,” Zack said.

She looked up, surprised. “Sure. Ask me anything.”

“What specifically did you and Miller talk about?”

“Hmm?”

“You said you talked long into the night. About what?”

“Well, about everything. All kinds of things.”

“Everything under the sun?” he asked, arching an eyebrow.

“What?”

He reached over and took the recorder from her hand, then worked the controls until he had rewound the tape a bit. Then he played back the part that said, “…doesn’t just go to sleep when he’s done, you know? We stay up for hours after, talking about everything under the sun….”

Sabrina licked her lips, confused.

“Give me a topic. Something you two talked about. Current events? Your favorite movies? Capital punishment? Smoking in bars?”

She struggled with her memory. Or rather, the lack of it. And despite all the training she had received from her father, she began to slowly, quietly, panic. “I don’t remember. Uncle Theo? What does it mean? I don’t remember!”

“Settle down,” Zack murmured. “It might not mean anything. Just take a deep breath.”

For the first time, and only in the slightest of ways, he reminded her of her father, and she responded by breathing deeply, in and out, until her nerves had steadied. Then she forced herself to look straight into his green eyes. “What does it mean?”

Zack cleared his throat. “Did your father ever talk to you about DT3?”

The panic bubbled back up her spinal cord and into her brain. Not because she had heard of DT3—she hadn’t. But it sounded so ominous. “It doesn’t ring a bell. What is it?”

“A drug. An experimental one that was being developed here at Perimeter—Damn it.” He turned toward the phone, which had begun to ring. “Give me a minute.”

Punching the speaker button, he demanded, “Who is it?”

“Zack? Hey, man. It’s me. Connor. Did you want something?”

“Where the hell were you? Don’t you work for a living?”

“Lighten up,” Connor advised with a laugh. “I’m here now. What’s up?”

Zack glanced toward Sabrina, then murmured, “I need some information about one of Sully’s daughters.”

“Which one? The warrior? Or the con artist?”

Zack winced. “The younger one. Shelby. I heard she’s got a new boyfriend.”

“She gets a new boyfriend every week,” Connor told him, laughing again. “She’s got a big heart, if you know what I mean.”

“I’m on the speaker phone. The other daughter’s here with me.”

“Shit.” Connor cleared his throat audibly. “Sorry, Miss Sullivan.”

“Don’t worry about it,” she told him. “I just need to know where my sister is.”

“Huh?”

Zack took over, suggesting tersely, “Tell us about the new boyfriend.”

“I haven’t read the report yet. It’s not due until Friday,” Connor explained. “I’ve had my most reliable guy checking her place a couple of times a week. He mentioned the new boyfriend. Said he looked pretty solid. Hold on. Let me grab the file and see if we’ve got a photo. It’s here somewhere and—oh, shit.”

Zack leaned toward the machine. “What’s wrong?”

“You’re not gonna believe this, Zack. It’s John Derringer! I’m looking right at him. A picture of him, I mean. Shit, shit, shit. I can’t believe it. What does he want with Sully’s kid?”

“Shut up,” Zack instructed. “Just fax me what you have and stop causing a panic.”

“I’ll go over to her house right away.”

“It’s too late for that now. Just fax me what you have and stand by for further instructions.”

“I’m sorry, Zack—”

“Just answer the goddamned phone when I call back.”

“Right. Jeez, what could Derringer want with—”

The rest of the sentence was cut off and Sabrina knew Zack had terminated the call. He wasn’t looking at her. He was looking at Theo, and both men seemed stunned.

She wanted to ask who John Derringer was, but it didn’t seem to matter. All that mattered were those three little words. It’s too late…

“Oh, God,” she whispered, her heart and soul flashing back to the moment, five long years ago, when she’d heard about her father’s death at the hands of Adonis Zenner. “This can’t be happening. Not again.”

“Don’t worry,” Zack told her. “We’ll get her back.”

“You just said it’s too late!”

“That’s not what I meant.” He flushed. “It’s too late for Connor to go and protect her. That’s all. And I don’t want him messing up the scene. I’ll have my crew meet me there later, to look for clues.”

When Sabrina exhaled sharply, he added, “She’s fine. I’m almost sure of it. John would never hurt a woman. Especially not someone Sully cared about. He and your dad were close once. A million years ago, but it counts for something. I’m sure.”

Sabrina crossed to him and grabbed his hands in her own. “I need information. I’m dying here.”

“Yeah, I get that,” he murmured. “Just breathe, okay? I’ll tell you everything I know.”

Reassured and a little embarrassed, she pulled free and backed a few steps away. “Who is this John Derringer?”

Theo stepped up to her and slipped his arm around her shoulders. “He used to work for us, honey. Years ago. Your father recruited him. Trained him. Just like Zack. Except Derringer was nothing like Zack. Nothing like Sully. We learned that the hard way.”

She shifted so that she could gaze up at Theo. “What does he want with my sister?”

“Hard to say—”

“He wants information,” Zack interrupted. “If all he wanted was to hurt her, he wouldn’t have gone to all the trouble of pretending to save your cat.”

“Pretending to save…?” Sabrina’s stomach knotted. “You think he planned all that? You think he broke Zorro’s leg? Oh, God…” She covered her face with her hands, struggling against a new wave of despair.

“He wants something from her,” Zack repeated. “Let’s figure out what it is, okay? That’s the fastest way to get her back. Safe and sound.”

“Zack’s right,” Theo said with reassuring vehemence. “If he was after revenge, he would have killed her right away. There’s something else going on.”

“Revenge?” She forced herself to focus. “Are you saying Dad did something bad to him?”

“It’s not revenge,” Zack protested. “He used DT3 on her. That means he wanted information.”

“Or he wanted to plant a suggestion,” Theo countered. “Don’t forget that.”

“Okay, stop.” Sabrina held up her hand. “DT3? You said it was a drug. What does it do?”

“It makes most people susceptible to hypnosis. But it makes some people sick to their stomachs. That’s what happened when he tried it on you.”

“My flu symptoms?”

“Right.” Zack motioned toward the wing chair. “Sit for a minute. This is a lot to take in, and I need you to concentrate.”

She nodded and sat down. “He used the drug on me, but it made me sick.”

“Right. But it worked enough to allow him to plant a basic suggestion in your mind. The suggestion that you and he stayed up all night talking about everything under the sun, or some such crap.”

“Right.”

“And he may have planted other suggestions, as well. So I need to ask you something. It’s going to make you mad, but just try to understand. Okay?”

She nodded.

“Is your weapon really outside in the car?”

“Yes. Why?”

“Do you have any feelings of animosity toward Theo? Feelings you can’t explain?”

“No. I have some toward you,” she added with a halfhearted smile. “But I can explain those.”

Zack laughed. “Fair enough.”

The light moment vanished quickly for Sabrina. “You think he might try to use me and Shelby to hurt Perimeter? That’s sort of far-fetched, don’t you think?”

“Yes. Just be aware. If you have feelings you don’t understand—urges that seem uncharacteristic—report them to me immediately.”

“I will. I promise.”

“And you should probably get some tests done. Tonight or tomorrow.” He grimaced, then explained, “For diseases. Pregnancy. Whatever.”

“I didn’t sleep with him, thanks to the vomiting. It was a definite mood killer.”

“Just the same…”

“I didn’t sleep with him,” she repeated, annoyed at the stubborn suggestion. Then her shoulders slumped. “Obviously, Shell did. But I’m sure she used protection.”

“Good.”

“It’s kidnapping, right? I mean, he drugged her and made her believe she’s in love with him. That’s the only reason she went away with him, so it wasn’t really consensual.”

“It’s kidnapping,” Zack agreed.

“And now he’s out there somewhere, playing with her head. Trying to get information. Or torturing her as revenge for something Dad did to him. That’s what you’re saying, right?”

“He’s not torturing her. It’s not his style. But otherwise, yeah. He’s messing with her head.”

Sabrina turned away, her heart pounding with confusion. “This is so much worse than anything I ever imagined. I thought I was overreacting. I thought you’d say he was just a romantic fool. Or at worst, a gigolo or something, trying to get at the trust fund.”

Spinning to face Theo, she insisted, “We hardly spent any of the money. We saved it for the day we could come back. So we could buy back Dad’s share of the company. We didn’t know you needed it. Please take it back—”

“Hey!” Theo silenced her with a hug. “Look around. Does it seem like I’m hurting? We had a cash flow problem for a year or so, but that’s behind us. Thanks to Zack. He got us on our feet. Found us a client who’s richer than Midas. We’re fine. I promise.”

With a wink he added, “Everyone knows I make my real money in real estate anyway. Perimeter’s just a hobby. So give me a smile and let’s not talk about money any more.”

Sabrina squeezed his arm, then resumed her questioning. “Tell me about John Derringer. What did Dad do to him that was so terrible?”

Zack gave her a curious look. “How much do you know about the Zenner mess?”

“The Zenner mess? Do you mean, my father’s murder? I’d like to think I know everything about it.”

“Let’s hear it, then.”

Sabrina shrugged. “Pluto Zenner assassinated a Perimeter client during some meeting in the Canary Islands. To salvage the company’s reputation, Dad helped the CIA track him down, and Pluto was killed resisting arrest. Then Pluto’s son Adonis came after Dad and blew him up.”

“Right.” Zack’s eyes clouded. “What you probably don’t know is that John Derringer was responsible for the breach in security that led to the assassination in the Canary Islands. It was John’s first big assignment for Perimeter, and he blew it. His ego took a serious beating.”

Sabrina was beginning to understand. “Dad fired him?”

“No. Sully wanted to give him another chance. But John’s pride got in the way. He quit in a huff. Disappeared for a few months, then surfaced as a petty criminal, using the knowledge he got from Sully’s training to penetrate various security systems and pull some creative heists. His way of saying he was just as good as us, I guess.”

“A disgruntled employee from five—no, six—years ago?” Sabrina shook her head. “It doesn’t make sense. Why would he wait so long to come after us?”

“That’s the question,” Zack agreed.

She covered her face with her hands again, but this time the gesture wasn’t one of despair. Instead she needed to blot out Zack and Theo for the moment. To return to her training. Her roots. Her legacy of strength from her father.

Fear doesn’t hurt people, Brie. Panic does. It’s an agent’s worst enemy. Learn to control it.

“Okay,” she said finally. “DT3. You said it’s got something to do with hypnosis, right?”

“It’s got everything to do with hypnosis,” Zack confirmed. “You’ve probably heard that a person can’t be hypnotized without their consent, right? And that you can’t make them do anything under hypnosis that goes against their grain? Well, DT3 changes all that.”

He pulled a chair over and sat directly in front of Sabrina. “It’s what they call a hypnotropic drug. It gives the hypnotist tremendous power. With it, he can put the subject into such a deep trance, even without their consent, that they’re virtually his slave. He can extract information from their memory or he can conceal it there. He can password-protect it so that he’s the only one who can ever retrieve it. He can plant powerful post-trance suggestions, like the one Derringer gave you.” Leaning closer, he muttered, “It’s a goddamned menace.”

“I can’t believe I’ve never heard of it.”

“Perimeter developed it. But after a few tests, your father and Theo were so alarmed by its potential, they abandoned the project.”

“But Derringer has it?”

Zack nodded. “We were both trained to use it. But the formula stayed with Sully. I guess John took a supply with him when he left. We’re probably lucky he hasn’t sold it to some foreign agency by now.”

Sabrina looked over toward Theo. “You think he’s planting ugly suggestions in her mind? Making her do creepy things?”

“That’s unlikely,” Zack protested. “My guess is he wants information. Something he thinks you girls learned during all those years with Sully. Maybe even some secret information Sully hid in your minds—”

“My father would never hide things in our minds!”

Zack flushed. “Take it easy. I’m just brainstorming here. If you can’t take it, you should go lie down or something.” He stood and turned to Theo, as though dismissing Sabrina. “Can you get Marietta to make copies of all Connor’s faxes for me? And all the reports from his crew for the last three months. Derringer probably surveilled the girls for weeks before he made his move. Maybe there’s something in the early reports we can use.”

“Wait!” Sabrina jumped up and confronted him. “Let me help.”

“You can help by staying out of the way. We do this for a living, you know. Go upstairs and rest for a while. If there’s anything to report, you’ll be the first to know.”

Sabrina wanted to reach down his arrogant throat and pull out his tonsils, but counseled herself to stay calm. He saw her as a civilian. Fine. She could use that to her advantage. Wasn’t that what her father would want her to do?

“I am a little beat,” she said with an apologetic smile. “Give me a few minutes to splash some water on my face, okay? But after that, I really want to help.” Heading for the double doors, she added over her shoulder, “I’ll be back in five minutes. Don’t make any decisions until I get back, okay?”

“Right,” Zack drawled.

Theo corrected him with a warm, loving, “Take your time. We’re just going to look at the files. And, Sabrina?”

“Yes?”

“You made the right decision, coming here. We’re going to get little Shellie back. I promise you that.”

Sabrina beamed, then turned and strolled into the hall as though completely reassured. But as soon as she was out of their field of vision, she sprinted toward the grand staircase, then took the steps two at a time, anxious to get to the music room that was located directly above Theo’s study.

She only hoped things hadn’t changed since the day, almost twenty years earlier, when two little girls—who were tired of being sent out of “Uncle Theo’s” study every time he and their father had something important to discuss—had transformed the music room into their own personal, clandestine listening post.

Chapter 2

Hurrying past the baby grand piano that dominated the music room, Sabrina opened a set of louvered closet doors on the far wall. A brass chest filled with sheet music was sitting right in front of her, just as it had been during her childhood. Inching the chest aside, she knelt and ran her fingertip along the rim of a large black knot in the oak flooring. Years of wax had sealed the knot firmly into place, but she was able to loosen it with the blade from her pocketknife.