The Rasner Effect Read online

  This triggered dizziness at a level he’d never experienced before. His vision blurred; his legs wobbled. Through the haze, he saw more people coming into the room. Hefner. She was crying. Behind her, a guy in a long raincoat smacked her with the tail end of a rifle, pushing her up to the wall beside Miller. Miller’s glance bounced off her and to the guy with the rifle. She was scared, Rick could tell but damned if she’d show it.

  “Who are you people?” Janet asked. “Rick, do you know them?”

  “No…I-I think I…yes. Yes!”

  Still experiencing a major case of vertigo, Rick blinked to focus on motion in the doorway. Someone else came in. Doctor Barnes stumbled, almost falling to his knees. Jen eyed the newcomer in confusion. Still, someone else entered; another man in a raincoat. This one, like the woman, looked familiar to Rick. The guy held a handgun in the air. He said, “I caught this jerk peeking at us through one of those door windows. Can’t have him contacting the police, so I shot out the lock and brought him in here.”

  Rick pressed fingers to his forehead, pushing hard to unify the double images in his brain. Suddenly, his legs gave out and he toppled forward, into Jen’s arms. Unable to support all his weight, she eased him to the floor.

  “What in god’s name do you people want?” Janet screeched. “What are you doing to him?” There was a slight scuffle that Rick couldn’t see because Jen was in the way. Janet’s voice said, “Leave him alone, you…”

  In his peripheral vision, Rick saw Janet wrenched backward. She gave a sharp ‘oof’ as her head hit the wall. He wanted to get up and help her, to give them what they wanted but his limbs had turned to jelly.

  “Jorge, keep her over there with the others,” Jen commanded. “Derrick, get Obenchain over here! We are not taking him to a lab; we are doing this right here, right now!”

  Derrick? Rick shook off a volley of woozies. Do I know a Derrick? Yes, of course I do and it’s him.

  Janet’s voice broke into his avalanche of memories. “What are you doing? Get away from him.”

  “What the hell happened to him?” Derrick asked. His face appeared over Jen’s shoulder. Memory flowed back into Rick, slowly at first. A gun. Fighting skills. I can kill all these assholes here, but how? Victims—hurt—killed by my hands. No, not victims. TARGETS!

  Derrick grabbed Obenchain’s collar and yanked him down to the floor beside Rick. “Quick, find out what’s the matter with him!”

  All these memories. What’s true? What’s not? Something happened. The bridge—not an accident—shot in the back of the head.

  Obenchain placed two fingers against Rick’s carotid. He pulled up one of Rick’s eyelids and peered into it. Rick couldn’t ascertain his thoughts, but knew they weren’t happy.

  The doctor spoke over his shoulder, “His emotions went completely erratic, probably a memory surge when he saw you all. That contradicted the intense conditioning. The microchip reacted and shut him down. His pulse is racing, his eyes are dilated. I don’t think you should try…”

  “Conditioning? You mean brainwashing, don’t you, Doctor?” Jen jumped up.

  Conditioning? Brainwashing? What the hell was going on here? Was any of this even real? Would he wake up and find it was another of his strange dreams? Or worse, was he now starting to hallucinate? Was this all a hallucination? He’d never done that before. Who knew they’d seem so real? He felt groggy, like whenever he woke up from a deep sleep, only he wasn’t waking up. What if this was actually happening?

  He had to get out of here. Rick looked toward the door, trying to estimate the distance and number of obstacles in the way. Could he stagger to his feet, feigning illness, then race past them all? Sure, if he could ignore the pain in his head long enough to get his gummy-legs moving, and make the double images turn back into singles so he wouldn’t tumble all the way down the stairs. What was the difference? Even if he got past all these people, he’d never get by Officer James.

  “I don’t think any of us asked for your opinion, Doc,” Derrick said.

  “Doctor Obenchain, please do what they ask of you, quickly,” Miller demanded, “so you can all just get the hell out of my facility!”

  “Jorge, keep them quiet!” Jen snapped. Rick couldn’t see past Obenchain, but there was a commotion, a thump, and a grunt. Then quiet.

  He heard Derrick’s voice again. “Okay, Doctor, you heard the lady, let’s do this. Right now!”

  “Are you completely insane?” Obenchain looked up at Jen with a distress that sent Rick’s senses reeling. Oh my god, what the hell were they planning? As he mulled over possibilities, the lightheadedness returned with a vengeance.

  “Look,” Obenchain said, “we agreed to take him back to my office where it’s a more controlled environment. For what you need me to do, the dangers…”

  “I won’t let him stay like…this for another moment,” Jen declared. “You will fix him right now!”

  Fix? Shit. What the hell does that mean? Fix what? And why did it hurt so much to think?

  “Derrick, keep an eye on the doctor, make sure he does everything exactly as the two of you planned out,” Jen ordered.

  Derrick kneeled next to Obenchain. Rick trembled. He felt something, maybe a blanket, drape over him. It did no good. As a matter of fact, he thought he shook even harder. A knapsack—grass green—thumped beside him. From it, Derrick removed a small rectangular black thing.

  “What is that?” Rick said, but no one replied. Could they hear him? Was he even speaking out loud? “Stop. Tell me what you’re doing to me.”

  Still nothing.

  “STOP!” Still no one reacted, not even Jen who’s back was to him as she spoke to someone across the room. He opened his mouth again. At least he thought he did. He heard the words, but apparently, he was the only one. Maybe it was all a nightmare. If he just relaxed and went back to sleep, he’d wake in the morning and it would all be over.

  Derrick slapped the black thing into Obenchain’s palm the way a nurse would hand a scalpel to a doctor during surgery. Two silver prongs stuck out one end. They dangled off two copper wires—wait a minute! Electricity? It’s some sort of…shock stick. What the hell are they doing with that near him? They couldn’t be trying to subdue him, he couldn’t be more subdued if he were—dead.

  “Okay, everyone, keep your mouths shut and don’t make a sound,” Jen yelled. “This will all be over soon. Meanwhile, we forget you exist and you may live to see this afternoon, understood?”

  “Just do what she says and stay out of their way,” Miller said. “They are all criminally insane and quite obviously violent.”

  “Okay, Doc, looks like it’s showtime,” Derrick said. He shifted position so he could hold Rick’s shoulders down against the floor. “Let’s hope your theory works in reality.”

  “You realize the chances of this working…” Obenchain began.

  “…Are the same as your living to see that little brat again,” Jen finished.

  Obenchain’s eyes glared up at Jen and then they focused on the taser in his hands. He wiped the hair away from Rick’s forehead, his fingers lingering a moment on the protuberance on his forehead. There was sorrow in his eyes as they met Rick’s. He raised the probes. They disappeared from Rick’s line of vision as Obenchain placed them on what felt like spots above and below the lump.

  “What are you going to do to him?” Janet called. “Are you trying to kill him?”

  “¡Callate!” Jorge screamed the same time as Miller said, “Shut the hell up.”

  Obenchain examined the taser and the two wires running up to Rick’s forehead. He looked down at Rick. He wrapped his left fingers on the knob, hesitating over turning the dial. Into Rick’s line of sight came the barrel of a gun. For a horrific second he thought the woman intended to shoot him and void whatever Obenchain was about to do. Then the gun settled against the doctor’s head. A small part of Rick relaxed, though he didn’t know why. He had the sneaking feeling that being shot might be infinitely better than
what was about to happen. At the very least, it would put an end to the unbearable pain.

  Obenchain’s fingers twisted the knob right, then a little left as he selected the strength of current he planned to shoot into Rick.

  “All righty,” Derrick said. “Now short that thing out. But if you turn our boy into a vegetable, what happens to this place rests on your conscience, not ours.”

  Obenchain looked over his shoulder at Miller and the others and then back down at Rick. He held the taser up over Rick’s chest, his finger over the taser trigger.

  “Do it, Doctor.” Jen tapped him in the back of the head with her gun. Her patience was running short. She was just as Rick remembered, but how and from where?

  “D-doctor Oben...” Rick’s voice was barely a whisper, but it was all the sound he was able to pull from his throat. “I don’t…under…what?”

  The doctor’s finger twitched. “I’m sorry,” he whispered.

  Then he pulled the trigger.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Obenchain held his finger on the trigger for an eight-count and then released it. He could almost feel the electricity shoot through the gadget and along the wires straight to Rick’s forehead. Rick let out a screech. His neck arched, his head rose up, and then smashed back to the floor with a dull thud. His eyes rolled back. His entire body tightened—like having a seizure. His mouth opened. Obenchain waited for him to scream, he had to be feeling so much pain with the taser strength set so high. Not a sound came from his mouth.

  Rick’s body relaxed. His breathing was harsh, his eyes squeezed tight. If he didn’t go into cardiac arrest…

  Obenchain poised to snatch his cell phone from his pocket and phone for EMTs.

  “Well?” Jen shouted.

  Obenchain didn’t raise his gaze from watching the rise and fall of Rick’s chest. His breathing remained raspy and sporadic. Sweat dripped off him. Some ran into his ears.

  “I don’t think we’ve shorted it out yet,” Derrick said.

  Did he really want to do this? There might still be time to stop. He felt Rick’s carotid again. The pulse was slowing, stabilizing.

  “Doc?”

  “No. No, it’s not shorted out yet.”

  “Then do it again!” Jen ordered.

  With a swell of pained regret, Obenchain pulled the trigger a second time. Rick’s body tightened again, his teeth grated together. A telling drop of blood appeared in his right nostril.

  “Why are they doing this?” Janet yelled out, but no one responded.

  Obenchain held his finger across the trigger for another eight-count. Smoke emanated from the wires as well as the probes attached to Rick’s flesh. His body started to shake.

  Obenchain removed his finger from the trigger.

  “Come on,” Jen poked him in the back of the head with her gun again.

  “I’m working as quickly as I can!” Obenchain shouted back at her. “This needs to be precise! Too much or too little current and you won’t get this psychopathic lunatic back within your ranks!”

  Jen cocked her gun and pointed it in Obenchain’s face. “Don’t get snippy with me, Doctor. I get what’s mine back and you get what’s yours back. Just think about…”

  “Arnold is all I’m thinking about. And I damn well wonder if even his life or mine are worth releasing this psychotic murderer back on an unsuspecting society!”

  “What in the world are they talking about?” Janet hissed at Miller. Obenchain turned to look in time to see the facility director dismiss her question with a furious wave of the hand.

  He looked up at Jen, expecting a response to his outburst, but it seemed their verbal joust was over. Instead, she lowered the gun and stood back wearing a huge grin on her face. Obenchain followed her gaze down to Rick, whose pair of wide angry eyes stared back. He barely had time to suck in a gasp of air before Rick Rasner’s left hand lunged out and clutched him by the throat.

  In one motion, Rick sat up and then rose to his feet, pulling Obenchain up with him, the ends of his fingers digging into the soft flesh on either side of his windpipe. Rick used his other hand to wrench the suction cups and wires from his head. He heaved them away.

  Then he walked forward. Obenchain had to back up, to keep from falling over his own feet. Shuffle step back, shuffle step back, all the while looking into those cold dark eyes. His backside hit something solid, Janet’s desk. The rage grew inside the monster that used to be his patient and then apprentice, Rick Rasner.

  “I remember,” Rick growled, his fingers tightened even more. Now he could take in only small amounts of air. “I remember…everything. Everything you did to me. And I’m going to kill you for it.”

  Obenchain snaked a hand between them and tried to break Rick’s grip, but the anger manifested itself in superhuman powers and Rick threw his hand off like a pesky insect. Rick leaned his full weight on him. His breath was hot with fury. “All these memories in my head, memories I got from you—my mentor—my friend. Every single one of them—bullshit!” The fingers tightened around the doctor’s throat so that he could take in only small amounts of air. He sounded like a beached whale and there wasn’t a thing he could do to stop it.

  Rick shook Obenchain, spitting out the venomous words “You played with my head…you…”

  Another drop of blood trickled from Rasner’s nose. When he shook Obenchain, the droplet flew off, landing on his shirtfront.

  Jen’s face appeared behind Rick. She put a hand on his shoulder. “Rick, I need you to stop and think for a moment. How much do you remember right now?”

  “I remember…you. You’re ah, Jennifer.” He released his grip on Obenchain’s throat and turned away.

  The doctor collapsed in a heap, banging off the front of Janet’s desk. He saw stars but they were insignificant. He needed air. He sucked in the life-giving force. Very little came. God, the monster had crushed his windpipe. He rolled on his back and looked up at Jen in a silent plea for help.

  He would die if he didn’t get help soon. And it didn’t appear as if any would come. Jen’s attention focused only on the monster. He thought he heard someone say something about helping him, but Jorge Alvino pointed the rifle at her and she shut up.

  Time passed in a blur.

  Rick Rasner quickly recovered his memory. Jennifer Duke smiled at him. She gave a nod of her head.

  “He told me you weren’t real,” Rick said. “He said you were just a figment of my imagination. But I knew you had to exist. The visions were too real.”

  “I exist too,” Derrick interjected from somewhere out of Obenchain’s vision.

  “How long have I been like—this?”

  “It’s hard to say,” Derrick answered. “We don’t know when they put that chip in your head or how long they held you before…”

  “How long?” Rick shouted.

  “You’ve been missing for just over seven years,” Jen said. “But now you’re back, and we have a lot of catching up to do. How do you feel?”

  Rick rubbed his forehead, looked at Derrick, then at the assembled prisoners against the wall. “I feel strange—confused—like I’m waking up from a dream.” He glared down at Obenchain. “Why did he help?”

  “We have his kid.” Jen explained with a smirk on her face. “We made a deal. He helps us and we don’t kill the little brat.”

  “His kid. Arnold.” Rick glared down at Obenchain. “Fuck it, kill him anyway.”

  “No! We have…have…a…d-deal!” Hands clutched to his throat, the doctor’s words came out as a croak. “Please, no.” Gasp. No air came in.

  “We don’t need you anymore, so I guess the deal is off,” Jen said.

  “N…” Rick’s foot clamped down on Obenchain’s windpipe and pushed.

  Would they really kill his son too? Arnold’s face swirled before Obenchain’s eyes. Would he be responsible for the murder of the one human being in the world he sought to protect? Even if they let Arnold live, who would take care of him? Protect him? He already
lost his mother to them. Arnold’s fate, whatever it would be, was just as much his fault as those animals. He could have pushed to end this psycho’s life, but he needed a test subject for his work. Revenge made him choose Rick Rasner. And now…oh Arnold…

  He looked up at the young face. Forgive me, he thought. He knew it was too much to ask even as a final request.

  The foot punched down harder on his windpipe. The last thing Obenchain felt was his bladder letting go.

  Jen watched him twitch twice and then relax. It was over. On with their lives. Rick stared down at Obenchain’s body and rubbed the bump on his head. A brief moment of satisfaction lit his face as he removed his foot from the man’s throat. His eyes had darkened to black holes that, she had to admit, frightened her a little. She found it sexy, just like she used to.

  “Excuse me.” Showing a muster of courage, Hefner stepped forward. Jorge raised his rifle in her direction.

  “Ooh, a question from the peanut gallery,” Jen smirked and feigned interest.

  “Listen, you obviously have what you came here for. Do you have any more business here or could you please just leave us be?”

  “The fat lady’s right,” Derrick said. “We should leave. Who knows if somebody got to a phone.”

  Jen nodded and looked at Rick, but he didn’t answer. His attention riveted on Miller. The two were in a virtual stare-down from opposite sides of the room. Rick’s angry breathing grew louder.

  “Rick?” Jen placed her hand on Rick’s forearm. “Let’s get you out of here.”

  “Were you followed? Were the police called?” The rasp of the breathing filled the room. “If not, then we have time.”

  “Time for what? We can’t be sure someone out there didn’t manage to sneak a call.”

  Rick wasn’t listening. He stomped over to Miller. Jen watched his desire for vengeance get stronger with each step. What had this woman done to him? As he passed Janet’s desk, he reached out and took the gun from Derrick’s hand. Shoulders back, spine straight, he stared into Miller’s eyes. The facility director returned his scowl with one of her own. “Do you expect me to beg you for my life? You are psychotic and I will not give you the satisfaction of even a whimper.”