Chapter 32
Nicky’s last dance partner of the night was Andrew Muller, who escorted her all the way to her limo before wishing her luck and going on his way. Julien opened the door for Nicky, saying nothing as she got in the back seat.
Later, as Nicky thought back on the events of the next few minutes, she realized that these seconds from the time when Julien closed the door and was walking around the front of the limo were when she messed up. It made no sense for Julien to walk around the front of the limo. The design of the limo made it much faster for him to walk around the back.
It was the sort of observation a seasoned agent like Gia would have acted on right away. But Nicky didn’t think anything of it. She didn’t wonder why Julien was taking the long way, didn’t think that someone else might be coming up from behind the limo and Julien was staying out of her way.
When the back door opened again, Nicky thought it was Julien, coming back to tell her something. Her mind was still in a fog after the dance with Sergio, and her reaction time was terrible. Had her enemy intended to kill her, Nicky would have been dead.
“Hello, Nicky,” came a familiar voice. Nicky looked up just in time to see Melissa Mayhew push her way into the car, scooting Nicky along the bench seat with one arm, as if she were a toy who weighed only a few pounds.
Julien got into the driver’s seat and locked all the doors with a frightening click. The automatic window blinds began closing on their own. Julien started the car and pulled out of the driveway.
“Your driver and I had a talk before you came out,” said Melissa. “He and I are in agreement now about how this evening will proceed. Would you care to know our plans?”
Melissa was the same girl Nicky had seen six years ago. All that had changed was the hair. When they had last met, Melissa’s hair hung just low enough to cover her ears. Now it was cropped into a tight pixie cut with long bangs that angled down her forehead. Much closer to her than she was the last time, Nicky couldn’t help but admire how perfectly attractive Melissa was. Her face, her eyes, her skin – everything was a reminder that this was a being who possessed the flawless beauty of eternal youth.
“What’s the matter, Nicky? When I saw you last time, you knew just what to say and when to say it. Have you forgotten that trick?”
“What do you want?” Nicky said.
Melissa smiled, and Nicky caught just a glimpse of her fangs showing, which was unusual, and probably didn’t bode well. Vampires only allowed their fangs to grow when they were angry.
Or about to eat.
“I simply want to talk to you,” Melissa said. “I mean, really, how long has it been? Six years? That’s too long. I can tell you truthfully, I’ve thought about you many times since then. I was so pleased to see you at the dance tonight. I never thought this day would come.”
Melissa raised her hand to Nicky’s face, gently placing it on her cheek. With great care, she lifted Nicky’s mask from her face.
“Oh yes, it is you, and what a woman you’ve become,” Melissa said. “I mean…look at you! The last time we were together you were a scrawny little jackal in need of a bath. Now you’re one of the girls wearing black. How did this happen?”
Nicky pondered her options. Her best bet at this point was to play along, to convince Melissa that it was in her best interest to let Nicky go.
“Life’s been good to me,” Nicky said.
Tossing Nicky’s mask to the other side of the car, Melissa laughed. “I’d say so. I was so certain you were dead. My greatest fear was that someone was going to find your body in the swamp and I’d have to answer for it. But you never turned up, and now I know why. You got away. I can’t believe it, but you did. Of course, no little girl could make it out of the swamp by herself. Someone was helping you. Who was it?”
Nicky didn’t answer the question. Her mind was replaying just a few words and ignoring the rest. Greatest fear….someone was going to find your body…I’d have to answer for it. Melissa had never told anyone. Daciana, Renata, and the other immortals – none of them knew that one time a little girl got up after reprogramming and walked right out of the Farm.
“I don’t like being ignored, Nicky,” said Melissa. “Shall we do this the hard way then?”
“I’m sorry,” Nicky said. “I…don’t know where to begin.”
“How about the time you sat there in my office and answered all the reprogramming questions, even though you weren’t being reprogrammed at all. Do you remember that day?”
“Yes,” said Nicky.
“Did you know it wasn’t working? When I asked you those questions, were you aware of what was supposed to be happening?”
“I don’t know,” Nicky said
“Look at me when I speak to you! Look me right in the eyes or so help me, I will rip out your throat!”
Nicky wondered what was going to come of this. Her encounter with Sergio had left her doubting everything she thought she knew about herself. On the one hand, Sergio hadn’t gotten in. On the other hand, he clearly had some sort of effect on her.
But as Melissa’s pupils grew large and inviting, just like Nicky remembered from the Farm, she knew that Melissa wasn’t getting in. Nicky felt nothing at all. To her, Melissa was just a girl with unusually big eyes right now, staring at Nicky as if trying to see through to the back of her head.
“I’m going to ask you again, Nicky, and I want you to tell me the truth. Did you know that reprogramming wasn’t working when I was doing it to you?”
A part of Nicky wished that Melissa could hypnotize her. It would almost be a comfort if she did. If Melissa could get inside Nicky’s brain, that would relieve Nicky of the responsibility of figuring a way out of this mess.
“Yes, I knew,” Nicky said.
“How did you know?”
“I understood that you were trying to control me, but I felt nothing.”
“Do you feel anything now?”
“Yes.”
Melissa turned her head to one side, gently. Nicky wondered if she was supposed to turn with her.
“I know you’re lying,” Melissa said. She spoke the words in a voice that was overly sweet, a voice that made Nicky think about her own death.
“Sit up, please,” Melissa said. “Turn your whole body toward me.”
Nicky did as Melissa asked and now they sat together on the bench seat of the limo, their bodies facing each other, their knees barely touching. Melissa took Nicky’s hands in her own. It was a motherly gesture, holding onto both of Nicky’s hands, a show of affection that in another context might have been one girl bringing another close so she could tell her something important.
But inside that motherly gesture was an absurd, inhuman strength. Nicky felt it radiating through Melissa’s hands as they touched, the sense that, at any moment, Melissa could crush Nicky’s hands into powder if she wanted to.
Outside, the limo had pulled onto the highway, and was driving away from DC. Whatever happened next, Nicky apparently wasn’t going to her own after-party. How stupid she had been, the whole Network had been, not to expect this. They knew it was possible that Melissa Mayhew would be here tonight. But they had convinced themselves that Melissa wasn’t going to recognize Nicky now, that it had been too long and Melissa saw too many kids in the interim.
It was delusional on all their parts. Nicky and Jill together had given the Network a once in a lifetime opportunity to break into Thorndike, and they all had deluded themselves into thinking it would be okay. They were so desperate for this night to go well they willfully disregarded the danger that Melissa Mayhew posed.
Now they were paying for it. Now Melissa was ruining everything.
“We’re going to try again, Nicky,” Melissa said quietly. “I’m going to look into your mind. If you shut me out, I will break one of your fingers, then I’ll try again. Every time I try and fail, I break a finger. If I fail ten times, I’ll assume you are a lost cause, and I will rip out your throat. Are you ready?”
 
; No, she wasn’t ready, but she could have been. It was a depressing truth about her situation. Gia had tried to prepare her for just this moment, and she’d never completed the training. She’d given up on Abbot Schneider and his meditations, choosing instead to spend her time on things that she now knew were far less important. Had she mastered Abbot Schneider’s skills, she might have been able to fool Melissa, to earn her trust and make her think she was reprogramming Nicky for real this time.
“Give me a moment, please,” said Nicky. She began reciting the mantra in her mind, trying desperately to make it work. Breathe in me breathe in me…
“You may have ten seconds,” said Melissa.
Fine. Ten seconds. Breathe in me breathe in me – come on now, calm the mind, make the connection, open up to this girl. Nicky looked in Melissa’s eyes. Her pupils were enormous now. There was something there, something going on behind them, Nicky could tell, but it wasn’t having any effect.
“Nine….eight….seven…six…”
Melissa’s counting wasn’t helping. Nicky couldn’t focus on her mantra while Melissa was talking.
“Five…four..”
Nicky focused on the countdown instead, as if this were a traditional hypnosis session, as if Gia were asking Nicky to relax so they could have a look into her past.
“Three…two..”
It wasn’t working.
“…one.”
Melissa grabbed the little finger on Nicky’s left hand and twisted it backward at the knuckle, cracking it like a wishbone.
The pain was excruciating and instant. Nicky cried out in anguish and leaned forward—her body’s natural response was to curl up.
With a finger on Nicky’s chin, Melissa pulled her up straight and held Nicky’s face to hers so they were once again staring in each other’s eyes.
“We’ll move to your ring finger next,” Melissa said. “Shall I begin the countdown anew?”
“No,” Nicky gasped. “The countdown doesn’t help. I’m trying to let you in, I swear.”
“I believe you, Nicky. Since our last meeting, I’ve given considerable thought to what happened. I even engaged in a research project to try and understand how a simple human might resist my reprogramming. More than fifty slaves were used for the research, including your father. ”
“My father?” Nicky whispered.
“Evidence that your talent isn’t genetic,” said Melissa. “Your father took to reprogramming as easily as anyone else.”
“Where is he?”
Melissa laughed. “My dear, when I get done with you tonight, you’ll either be under my control or you’ll be dead. There’s no reason to worry about your father.”
“So tell me then,” said Nicky, “since it doesn’t matter if I know.”
“Your father is dead.” Melissa said the words in a casual voice, as if she were talking about the weather.
Tears filled Nicky’s eyes.
“How?”
“In a way it’s your fault,” Melissa said. “The fact that you just walked out of the Farm made me wonder if all these years I ever knew what I was doing. So I took some time to find out. I used your father and many others to really understand how mind control works, to try and learn how a little girl could look me in the eyes and just walk away. They were participants in a grand and useful experiment. I took them in and out of hypnosis. I placed powerful commands deep in their subconscious to lock off their minds, then asked my bond to try and get in and see what was there. I experimented with emotional and sensory extremes. Of course, I couldn’t send my participants out in the world. I had messed with their minds so much they might be unpredictable as slaves. All participants, including your father, were disposed of when we were done.”
“Disposed of,” Nicky whispered.
“I spared your friend, you know,” said Melissa. “That boy who was sleeping in the RV with you and your father. He became our control in the testing. We gave him standard reprogramming and compared his behavior to that of the test subjects throughout the experiment. He was quite useful and still made for a very fine slave. I just released him from the Farm tonight, in fact. Renata was in need of some new slaves, and that boy is almost ripe. He will be quite delicious in just a few months.”
“You gave Frankie to Renata?”
“Amusing, isn’t it? We had our own little reunion at the Homecoming Masquerade. You, me, and your friend, together again in the ballroom, six years after your improbable escape. And now, to top off our reunion, we’re going to learn the truth about you, Nicky. I’m excited, aren’t you?”
Nicky said nothing. So much to process in so little time. Her father was dead, mistreated in the most horrible way imaginable and then discarded, but Frankie was alive. All that time she’d been looking for him across the country, and he’d never left the Farm. He’d been locked inside that drab gray building for six years, and now he was in Renata’s mansion.
She had to make it out of the limo alive. No matter what, she had to make it out alive. She felt her mind coming into focus with the purpose of it. If she got out of this alive, she could finally rescue Frankie.
“In the experiment, I learned that there is a way to bore so deep into the subconscious the subject can be locked off from further reprogramming. That’s what has happened to you, Nicky. You are already a slave. The reason I can’t get into your mind is that some other immortal has programmed you to shut me out.”
Nicky put a puzzled look on her face, a look that wasn’t entirely a ruse, as Melissa was really going to a strange place with this one. Melissa thought she was already enslaved?
“Think about where you are,” Melissa said. “In six short years, a little jackal from the streets becomes a student in the Thorndike senior class? It just doesn’t happen that way. Whatever path you think you’ve taken to get where you are, it has all been a lie. Only a powerful force behind the scenes, an immortal from one of our rival clans, someone like Falkon Dillinger or Fu Xi, could have orchestrated a rise like this. How did you even get into Thorndike? Did you just fill out an application and get a phone call? Did you even have to interview? Someone got you in, Nicky. Someone wants you to do something while you’re here, and you don’t even know what it is. Someone is getting you close to me or Renata or Sergio, or maybe even Daciana. Perhaps you are gathering intelligence, or are programmed to carry out a terrorist attack on the school. Maybe you’re here to sabotage the Coronation contest. Maybe you’re going to do all these things and more, and you don’t even know it. Whatever your purpose is, there are too many coincidences in your life to assume that anything else is even possible. Tell me, Nicky, do you remember what happened on the night you escaped from the Farm?”
Did she remember running through the swamp, getting bitten by a snake, collapsing under a tree and nearly dying? Yes, she remembered all of these things, but she sensed this wasn’t the right answer.
“No, I….” Nicky whispered.
Melissa smiled. Her fangs were fully exposed now, as if she were ready to pounce on Nicky at any moment.
“When I tried to see into your mind, your own reprogramming kicked in,” Melissa said. “That’s how it works. I’ve replicated your case in the experiment. I’ve discovered the secret, and I’m going to flush out whoever is behind you. You see, I’ve learned how to crack open a mind that has been programmed to stay closed. My subjects opened up when I spoke to them in the language that our inner animals understand. Pain, anger, fear….so I’m going to ask you again, Nicky. Are you ready?”
“Ready for what?”
“Ten….nine…”
“Oh no,” Nicky said. “Not again. I’ll cooperate. I just need time.”
“What you need is fear. When I finish the countdown, I’m going to break another finger. I want you to think about that. I want you to fear it.”
“Please,” Nicky said. “Please don’t.”
“Seven…six...”
Nicky took a deep breath and tried to calm herself. She h
ad to make it out of here alive. She had to convince Melissa that she was safe to let go. Frankie was alive.
Breathe in me breathe in me.
“Five…four…”
Breathe in me…it wasn’t working. There were only three seconds left and it wasn’t working.
“Three…”
Breathe in me breathe in me – she took a slow, deep breath through her nose, exhaled through her mouth. The scent of the orchid corsage on her chest filled her nostrils. Breathe in me breathe in me.
“That’s it, Nicky. Feel the fear. I’m beginning to see something. Focus on the pain that will come when I break your finger. Two seconds…”
Beginning to see something? Was it fear? Was Melissa scaring her into opening her mind?
No, that wasn’t it. It wasn’t fear. It was Sergio. She had smelled the orchid corsage when she inhaled through her nose and it reminded her of him, of the trance he had put her in when they danced.
“That’s it, Nicky. Open your mind to me.”
She thought about the way Sergio looked, the way his back felt in her hands, the way he smelled. She thought about almost losing herself to his presence.
“One second left,” Melissa whispered.
Nicky took a deep breath through her nose. The scent of orchid filled her nostrils and she was all the way back. Her heart slowed down. Her breathing became steady and deep. Her pupils dilated. Her mind had taken her away from here, away from Melissa, away from the limo. She was there again with Sergio. She was inside her own memory of the dance.
“Very good,” said Melissa. “That wasn’t so hard, was it?”
“No,” Nicky said. She said it because she knew it was what she was supposed to say. Melissa’s voice had told her so. Nicky was hardly even there, so lost was she in the memory of her dance, but she knew enough to answer no to Melissa’s question.
“Now, search your memories. Tell me who programmed you.”
“Falkon Dillinger,” she said, lying with a name Melissa had already given her.
“Yes,” Melissa hissed. “I knew it was him. He can’t seem to leave us alone. First the Evans family, now this.”
The Evans family? Nicky struggled to maintain her composure. Was Melissa telling her why the Evans family was killed?
“What is Falkon having you do?” Melissa asked.
Nicky had learned from her time on the streets that the best lies were the simple ones.
“My job is to observe and report,” she said.
“Yes, intelligence. Go on. Why did you enter the Coronation contest?”
“As a girl wearing black, I can get closer to the immortals and report more of what is happening to Falkon.”
“But why does he want to know? What does he plan to do?”
“I am not to concern myself with that,” said Nicky. “My job is to observe and report.”
“Interesting,” said Melissa. “Nicky, I want you to listen to me. Starting now, Falkon Dillinger is no longer your master. Do you understand?”
“Yes,” she said.
“Your mission is no longer to give intelligence to Falkon Dilligner. It is to fool him. You will now only report to him what I tell you to say. Do you understand?”
“Yes,” said Nicky, a part of her thinking this was all so familiar, so much like the night on the Farm.
“I am your master now. But you will remain unaware that you have been programmed. You will continue as a student at Thorndike, completely ignorant of the fact that you now work for me. Do you understand?”
“Yes.”
“You will remember nothing of this conversation. Starting from the moment your driver opened the door for you until now, you have been riding quietly to your party, by yourself. Do you understand?”
“Yes.”
“What happened between us six years ago is now erased from your memory,” said Melissa. “You have never met me. You never came to the Farm. You never escaped my reprogramming. Do you understand?”
“Yes.”
“You are going to lose the Coronation contest, Nicky. You will take whatever steps are necessary to ensure you finish dead last. Your mission will be over when you are in the cage next spring. The moment before you die, you will remember everything I have told you to forget, and you’ll realize you’ve just been a pawn to my will all this time. Do you understand?”
This command complicated things. At some point in the near future, Melissa would see that Nicky had no intention of losing the contest and would know this reprogramming session was just as fraudulent as the last one.
If the mission was to continue, the Network would have to kill Melissa Mayhew.
“Yes,” Nicky said.
“We’re almost done here, Nicky, but you now have a broken finger. We need an explanation for that.”
Melissa pressed a button on the wall, giving her intercom access direct to Julien.
“Driver, please take the next available opportunity to get us into an accident. We’re looking for a fender bender, nothing too dangerous. We still wish for Nicky to go to her party tonight. We just want her to be a bit late.”
She turned back to Nicky.
“Or maybe a lot late. It’s tough to get your supporters excited when you miss your own after-party. You better buckle your seatbelt.”
Melissa buzzed Julien again.
“Driver, after the accident, I want you to stay until medical help arrives, to insist on a full and truthful report, and to have the paramedics give a thorough evaluation to everyone present. Even if Nicky wants to go to her party, you are to make her wait. Her safety comes first.”
On some level, Nicky felt herself starting to grow nervous. What Melissa proposed was a terrible plan that might result in innocent people getting hurt. But now wasn’t the time to indulge such thoughts.
Breathe in me…
Nicky sat back in her chair, her body cool and composed, and she buckled her seatbelt.
Julien waited until they took their exit from the freeway, and then plowed into the line of cars stopped at the first traffic light, rear-ending whatever driver was unlucky enough to be at the back of the line. The crash was swift and jarring, beginning with the collision of bumpers followed by sounds of squealing tires and folding metal.
There was a second of silence, then another crashing sound, this one right next to Nicky. She turned to find that Melissa was gone, having thrown open her door with such force it had broken from its hinges.
“Dammit,” Nicky whispered. She reached up to press the intercom button and speak to Julien and cried out in pain with the movement. Her neck, her shoulders, the little finger on her left hand – all were in various states of agony. Looking down at her finger, she saw that it was angled sideways at the knuckle and starting to swell. With her right hand, she undid her seat belt, then she started going through the array of cabinets and drawers along the wall and underneath the seats. After finding two drawers stocked with various free samples of expensive makeup and another six stocked with liquor, she found a first aid kit in a compartment under the armrest where Melissa had been sitting. Using her good hand and her teeth, she cut off a long stretch of medical tape and hung it from the ceiling. Then, taking a deep breath and closing her eyes, she grabbed her little finger and pulled it straight, hearing the bones grind inside as she did so. The pain was worse than when Melissa had broken it, but it was over, and there was no one in the car threatening to break the rest of her hand.
Pulling the length of tape from the ceiling, she wrapped her finger tightly, and ripped off the excess with her teeth. Then she crawled out the door Melissa had left open.
They had smashed into a white sedan and pushed it into the next car, sandwiching the poor driver on either side. It was a middle-aged man, who was now kicking at his door to get it open. Nicky ran to help him pull. Together they got the door open and the man stumbled out. He appeared to be unharmed.
“What the hell--” the man began, but seeing that Nicky was in formal wear,
in black formal wear, changed his tone. “Are you okay, Miss?”
“I’m fine,” Nicky said.
“We’ll let the medics be the judge of that,” came a voice behind her. It was Julien, who was walking toward her with a limp.
“I’m so sorry,” Nicky said to the man. “My driver was being reckless. He--”
“No, no,” said the man, holding up his hands. “It’s all good, I’m sure. Did you just come from the…?”
“Yes, I was at Thorndike’s Homecoming ball,” said Nicky, “and I’m afraid--”
“Let’s wait for the police to arrive, Nicky,” said Julien. “We can give them a full report. Rockwell Transport will make sure that everyone who was involved is fully compensated.”
“I’m just glad you’re alright,” the man said to Nicky.
“What happened back here? I have children in my car!” came a voice from farther down. It was a woman. Her minivan had been parked at the light. The limo had pushed the white sedan into her back bumper.
“Everything’s fine,” said the man. “This limo was on the way from the Thorndike Homecoming.”
It was a warning to the woman to cool her jets, that this was a girl wearing black who, for all they knew, might be an immortal in nine months. The warning worked. The woman instantly went from angry to helpful.
“Oh, my,” she said. “I’m so glad you weren’t hurt. What happened?”
“Just a little accident ma’am,” said Julien. “I’ll be giving a full report to the police. You have nothing to worry about. My company will ensure you are compensated for any damages.”
Nicky felt sad for all these people. They were the ones whose lives were interrupted, but they were kowtowing to her, the girl wearing black, as they had been trained to do. It was all so ugly and rotten.
And Nicky would have to just go with it.
“Excuse me, ma’am,” she said to the woman from the front of the line. “I’ve got to get to a party, and my limo…well..”
“Are you asking me for a ride?” the woman said.
“You can’t leave, Nicky. The police are on their way. We need to complete the accident report.”
“I need to get to my after-party,” said Nicky. “The police will understand. If you have a problem with that, send them to the Hamilton.”
“The Hamilton then?” said the woman. “Yes, I’ll take you. My car…it’s such a mess. I’m so sorry. It’s the children.”
“No one is leaving!” Julien snapped.
“Ignore him,” Nicky said to the woman. “He’s forgotten who he works for. I’ll be having a chat with his boss tomorrow. Nothing is more important than getting me to my after-party right away.”
“Yes, yes, of course,” said the woman.
Julien ran in front of her and put his hands on Nicky’s shoulders. “Nicky, I can’t let you leave.”
Nicky sighed. Her finger was throbbing with pain. Her neck was jacked up from the accident. She was in a formal dress and high heels. She really didn’t want to fight her way past Julien right now.
Fortunately, she didn’t have to.
“Get your hands off her,” shouted the man from the white sedan.
“Stay out of this, it isn’t your business,” said Julien.
“You’re making it his business,” said Nicky. “I need to go to my party, now let me go.”
“I said, get back in the car,” Julien commanded.
“And I said, let her go,” said the man, accompanying his words with a shove to Julien’s shoulder. As Julien stumbled sideways, Nicky grabbed the woman by the arm and said, “Let’s get out of here.” Together, they rushed to the woman’s minivan, while Julien and the man he ran into broke into a fistfight behind them.