Mind Games

Chapter Twenty-Six

  A Quick Exit

  Matthew disconnected his lap-top from the mini-computer, stuffed it into his tool-case, and threw back the sheet that covered up Jayne.

  “Now!” he shouted.

  Jayne immediately sprang from the bed. She was still dazed and very wobbly on her feet, and she nearly fell as Matthew grabbed her around the waist and ran with her to the door.

  As soon as they were outside, Jayne pointed down the corridor and said, “This way! This way!”

  Matthew didn’t question her knowledge, he just ran, pulling Jayne along with him. After what he had seen on his lap-top, as all the data from both his Crays had disappeared through the implant, even when he had duplicated it several times as it went through his mini-computer, he trusted Jayne implicitly.

  It was amazing. In just a few minutes his world had been turned completely upside down. Where before Ben Watkins and MedTec had been his friend and saviour, now they were his enemy. Both of them out to destroy him. The fact that Julia Connors, and the coloured technician who had helped Sandra with the brain scans, were in actual fact both trained assassins, he didn’t question. No matter how outrageous, no matter how ludicrous, he believed Jayne Middleton.

  Could it all be just a delusion? After all, Jayne had been through a severe head trauma. And for all Matthew knew, she could have been an out an out psycho even before her accident. Yes, it could all be a delusion. Logically, and sensibly, he wished it was. It would have been much easier and safer that way. But deep down inside, he knew it wasn’t.

  Jayne knew exactly where they were going. She kept telling him which corridor to take, and which door to go through. That would have been impossible unless she was telling the truth. That was also the real reason why she had known who everybody was as soon as she awoke.

  They burst out of a fire escape, setting off an alarm.

  “Now where?” Matthew asked her. They were stood in the car park.

  Jayne shivered. She was barefoot and the only thing she wore was her hospital gown. She stared at the remaining cars in the car park. “That one!” she said, pointing to a white, convertible three series BMW.

  They ran towards it. As soon as they reached it, Jayne tore at the hood. There was a broken stud, and she knew exactly where it was. In a moment she had her hand inside, and the door was open.

  Matthew found himself sitting inside a very untidy car, his tool-case on his lap. There were cassette tapes, CD’s, bits of paper, maps, toffee wrappers, anything you could imagine, all littered around the car. He even had to reach underneath himself and pull out a woman’s high-heeled shoe. It was the left one. The right one was by his feet on the floor. He threw the one he had found after it.

  As he was looking around, Jayne was rifling through the glove box, throwing its contents on the floor.

  “I know it’s in here somewhere!” she was saying. “I always keep it in here! It has to be here! Got it!” She pulled out a key and stuffed it in the ignition. The engine roared, and they were off.

  The telephone rang in the monitoring room. There was the sound of scuffles on the floor behind the desk, then Julia appeared. Her nurse’s uniform was all disarranged, as was her hair. She had just managed to untangle herself from Rawlston, get to her knees, and snatch up the phone before the third ring.

  “Yes?” she answered breathlessly, just as Rawlston grabbed her again, and she grunted and kicked at him.

  “Ow!” Rawlston cried from the floor behind her.

  “Connors, is Rawlston with you?” Ben’s voice was clearly audible on the phone.

  “You could say so, yes,” Julia replied, deliberately stepping on him with her foot as she stood up, and smiling when she heard him moan. “Do you want to talk to him?”

  “No. Just pass on this message. The field trial is terminated. And that goes for all the personnel associated with it. You got that, Julia, darling? Terminated with extreme prejudice, I think is the correct term. Or, put more simply, get in there and kill them. Kill them all, now!”

  The line went dead, and Julia instinctively glanced at the monitor screen. The room was empty.

  “Oh, shit!” she exclaimed. She ran to a cupboard at the side of the room and began to fumble in her pocket for the key that would unlock it.

  Rawlston climbed to his feet. He was still pulling his trousers up, and his shirt was all undone. “Did Ben say the field trial was terminated?” he asked.

  “Yes!” Julia called to him as she finally unlocked and opened the door. The cupboard was full of guns. “And guess who’s flown the coup while you and I were playing hide the sausage!”

  “Shit!” Rawlston said, glancing at the monitor.

  “Exactly! Now guess who’ll be in it up to their pretty necks if either one of them gets out of the building!”

  Julia took a large automatic from the cupboard, stuffed a loaded clip into it, and quickly hid it inside her unbuttoned uniform. As she headed for the door, Rawlston threw his jacket on, took another automatic from the cupboard and hurried after her.

  While Rawlston paused in the corridor to lock the door to the monitoring room behind them, Julia was already moving away.

  “Wait!” he called to her. “Sandra will have finished her shift by now. No one will have paid any attention to her, so she could already be outside.”

  “Okay. I’ll get her! You find the others! And remember, you owe me two months pay!”

  “What?”

  “One for the bet I won, and one for the sexual favours you got in there!”

  Rawlston shook his head in exasperation. “Okay, okay!” he agreed. “Just get Sandra, will you! She usually catches the Metro on Trafford Road.”

  Julia nodded, and headed in one direction, while Rawlston went in the other.

  Rawlston held his gun ready, but hidden under his jacket as he hurried towards Matthew’s lab. It proved to be unnecessary, as there was no one in the corridor. It was five-thirty, and most, if not all, of MedTec’s legitimate employees had already left.

  As he hurried along, he couldn’t help feeling annoyed with himself at his own stupidity. One slip, that’s all it ever took. He should have known better. He did know better. But Julia in a nurse’s uniform had been too much for him. And now the pair of them could both end up dead if Hall and Middleton got away.

  Please, don’t let them have gone far, he said to himself as he neared the door marked ‘Mat’s Den’. Please make this an easy kill. As he grabbed the handle, the security alarm went off.