The Rose Ransom (Girls Wearing Black: Book Three) Read online

  Jill did as her mother demanded. It wasn’t like she needed the window open now anyway. Her brief loss of control combined with her mother’s yelling was more than enough to wake her up.

  They arrived in Landover just before noon. The GPS guided Jill along the edge of town to a neighborhood that once might have been home to families with young children, but now looked like it only housed people waiting for death. The trees were old and brittle. Lawns were overgrown. Fallen leaves were everywhere. The cars were all models from Jill’s childhood, bought new ten or fifteen years back and run into the ground.

  They parked in front of a slim house with aluminum siding painted baby blue.

  “Are we here?” Carolyn asked.

  “We’re here,” Jill said.

  She felt a sense of gloom in the air as she stepped out of the car. Cold mist, dark clouds, a noisy wind—the weather matched how she felt after watching that horrid footage and staying up all night.

  Jill wondered how the hypnotist would react to this visit. She wasn’t coming to his door with a normal request.

  A typical vampire slave had his mind programmed into oblivion. He knew how to act in service of his master, but wasn’t very good at critical thinking or problem solving. Carolyn Wentworth was something else entirely. Her programming allowed her the free capacity of her fabulous mind when she sat at a computer terminal, but made her a slave to her husband’s whims. Would the hypnotist be ready for this?

  Carolyn let Jill lead the way to the front door.

  “Not a very nice looking place,” Carolyn said.

  Aware that her mother almost never left the sheltered world of Potomac, Jill said nothing in response. She climbed up three concrete steps to a small porch and rang the doorbell.

  No one answered.

  “Does this mean we can go home now?” asked Carolyn.

  “No, Mom. Hang on.”

  She rang the bell again. Still nothing.

  “I’m going back to the car,” Carolyn said. “The traffic won’t be bad if we hurry.”

  “Just a second, Mom. Please.”

  “I don’t have any more seconds for this nonsense, Jill.” Carolyn was at the car now, pulling on the handle of the locked door again and again like a little kid. “Let me in!” she cried.

  “Oh good lord,” Jill muttered. She pulled the keys from her pocket and used the remote to unlock the car. Exasperated, her mother crawled inside.

  Jill turned back to the front door.

  “Hello?” she said, rapping on it with her knuckles. “Hello. I need to speak with Gordon!”

  Nothing happened. They weren’t here. In her rush to get out of the house, with Code Orange called and her cover blown and the mission in disarray, Jill hadn’t bothered with the simple step of calling before she came.

  She looked back to the car. Her mother was inside now, with the doors locked. The window was up. The laptop was open and her face was illuminated with the dull glare of its screen.

  Confident there was no way her mother could hear her, Jill rang the bell again. This time she followed it up with the words, “Gordon? It’s Jill Wentworth. From the Network.”

  Footsteps on the other side. The door opened. Gordon Krause, the master hypnotist who had once looked in Jill’s mind to ensure she was suitable Network material, stood on the other side.

  “Jill! I’m so sorry you’ve been waiting,” Gordon said. “We’ve got this encyclopedia salesman working the neighborhood.”

  “Encyclo-what?” said Jill.

  “Never mind. Just something they try to sell to old people,” said Gordon. “Please, come in.”

  “Hang on,” Jill said. “I need to get my mother.”

  Chapter 7

  “Are you the hypnotist?” Carolyn asked.

  “I am,” said Gordon.

  “Where do I sit?” Carolyn said, shuffling about the living room like a crazy person. “I want to get this over with.”

  “Get this over with?” said Gordon. The poor man had no idea what was going on.

  “Yes, get this….does he even know what we’re doing here?” Carolyn demanded. “Jill, I’ve indulged this for long enough. I will speak to your father about it. He thinks this is what he wants for me, but he’s wrong. What he really desires is for me to do my best work, and my best work happens when I am in my room working, not when I am playing silly mind games.”

  “Mom, why don’t we get the laptop and put you someplace quiet while I speak with the hypnotist?”

  Jill looked to Gordon for help. “Do you have a bedroom where she could work? She really needs a place where she can sit down at a desk and close the door.”

  Now Gordon was completely lost. To his credit, he played along. “Yes, there is a guest room upstairs.”

  “I’ll be right back with the laptop, Mom. We’ll set you up and you can type away until it’s time for your session to start.”

  A minute later Jill was closing the door on a small bedroom upstairs, shutting Carolyn inside with her laptop.

  “Sorry about all this,” she said to Gordon. “My mom…”

  “Your mother has been programmed,” Gordon said.

  He said it in such a plain voice Jill didn’t know how to react. “How did you know?”

  “She displays all the hallmarks,” said Gordon. “Over the years the Network has brought hundreds of subjects to my door for deprogramming. Every time their response is similar to hers. Their program doesn’t want them to be here. The internal conflict tears them apart. They become irritable to the point of irrational. We’re lucky that you knew how to calm her. How long will she be content to stay in the bedroom?”

  “She’s working now,” Jill said. “She’ll forget about the rest of the world. She’d stay there all day if we let her.”

  “So her program is to work,” said Gordon.

  “Something like that,” said Jill. “I’m hoping you can tell me.”

  “Let’s sit down and talk.”

  They sat in the den, Jill on a couch, Gordon in a chair. Gordon made a pot of tea and brought out a bag of stale cookies.

  “I’ve been on assignment in Potomac,” Jill said.

  “I recall,” said Gordon. “And I encourage you to tell me as little about your mission as you can.”

  “I don’t need to tell you anything, except that it’s over,” said Jill. “Code Orange has been called. I need to get out of town. I want to take my mother with me.”

  “She’s in no condition to travel,” said Gordon. “If you try to take her now, she will struggle and fight, and eventually find her way back.”

  “I can’t leave her here. The minute I disappear my parents become suspects. I don’t know what the vampires will do to them. My father will be fine. He doesn’t know anything about me and he’s too good of an ass-kisser to get in real trouble. But my mother…she deserves better than this.”

  “You are unable to leave her behind,” said Gordon. “I understand. She is your mother.”

  Jill was surprised at the impact of the words.

  She is your mother.

  As tears formed in her eyes she wondered how long it had been since she heard those words and believed them.

  My mother.

  The word was so powerful. It was one that Jill had practically removed from her vocabulary. Her mother should have been a protector, a teacher, a benefactor, a friend. Carolyn had never been any of those things, but maybe there was still time. Jill owed it to both of them to try.

  “Tell me everything you know about her programming,” said Gordon. “In order to unlock her mind, I must understand what sort of key to use.”

  “It’s about my father,” said Jill. “I was investigating something for the mission and I stumbled into disturbing info about my own family. Years ago, my father went to Melissa Mayhew in secret and bought a slave to have as a wife.”

  “A wife, or an employee?” asked Gordon. “It seems she is motivated by work.”

  “I think she’s programmed to serv
e her husband,” said Jill. “She works hard because that’s what my father wants her to do.”

  “I’m surprised you were able to get her to come see me.”

  “I told her my father wanted her to see a hypnotist. As far as she knows, she’s here to get some sort of performance enhancing hypnosis to help her write computer code.”

  Gordon laughed. “Oh yes, everyone wants to do more, don’t they? They want someone to train their brains so they work harder and with more focus.”

  “I told her that’s what dad wanted for her.”

  “I will have a look, Jill. We will go as deep as we can in your mother’s mind. But without knowledge of the specific commands used, we may not be able to undo the damage. You see, what Melissa does at the Farm—she uses short, succinct commands, and places them very deep in the subconscious. Those commands flow outward and, over time, shape every thought in the subject’s mind. When I deprogram someone, I negate those commands, using the exact words that Melissa used. I know the commands, so I can cancel them out. But with your mother, I have no idea what Melissa said. Clearly she isn’t a standard subject.”

  “No, not at all,” said Jill. “She’s nothing like the slaves I’ve seen. She’s a phenomenal problem solver.”

  “And that in itself makes me worried. I’ve undone the work of many vampires from across the globe, and can tell you that Melissa Mayhew is the very best in the business. Only she could create a slave and leave such high level cognitive functions intact. Without knowledge of the exact words Melissa used, it will be very difficult.”

  “Can’t you ask her to tell you what the commands are?” said Jill.

  “Oh, we will. We most definitely will. And if it were a less skilled vampire who did the programming, that alone might work. But Melissa is an artist.”

  Was an artist, Jill thought.

  “Melissa creates her commands in a way that the subject won’t divulge them easily under human hypnosis,” Gordon continued. “Imagine an octopus burrowed deep in the brain, whose tentacles reach all throughout the organ. You can cut off a tentacle, but it will grow back. To undo the programming, you must go deeper. You must find the heart. Melissa hides the heart so deep it is nearly impossible to find. I must know the words she used. The words are a roadmap that takes me exactly where I need to go.”

  “There has to be a way,” Jill said.

  “We’ll do our best.”

  “We? Why are you saying we? Will I be participating in this too?”

  “Oh yes. You know your mother much better than I do. When I begin the hypnosis, you will be in the room with me. You will help me make sense of what we find in your mother’s mind.”

  Chapter 8

  “Carolyn, we are going to do some exercises to relax your mind,” said Gordon.

  They were in Gordon’s basement. A large, windowless room, illuminated with two floor lamps on a dim setting. The walls were bare. The furniture was sparse. Carolyn sat in an old blue recliner. Jill and Gordon sat across from her in folding chairs.

  “As long as it’s quick,” said Carolyn. “I want to get back to work.”

  “The exercises won’t be quick,” said Gordon. “And they will only work if you allow them to.”

  “Mom, we have to do this. And you have to be willing to do it. The process won’t work unless you give it a chance, and dad will insist we do it again if it doesn’t work.”

  “What if it never works?” Carolyn said.

  “Carolyn, we will be seeking out the most basic motivations in your mind and modifying them to ensure maximum productivity. If you give yourself fully to the task, it will work. I promise,” said Gordon.

  Carolyn sighed. She closed her eyes and slumped her shoulders.

  “Fine. Let’s get this over with,” she said.

  “We begin with a deep breath,” said Gordon. “In through the nose, out through the mouth.”

  Carolyn did as Gordon instructed. In fact, now that she had decided she had to “get this over with,” she became an ideal subject.

  Gordon had her look at a spot on the ceiling as he counted down from ten. He made her close her eyes and imagine waves of relaxation going through her body. His voice was so soothing Jill felt her own body following his commands.

  And when I get to zero, you will be in an even deeper state of relaxation. 10…9…8…

  It was like they were traveling deep into a cavern and Gordon was their leader. With each breathing exercise, each countdown, Jill felt like they all were going deeper into the cave. Layers upon layers of relaxation. As he spoke, Jill saw the physical response in Carolyn’s body. She became loose. The tension in her face was released. Her legs and torso and chest sunk into the chair. Neither asleep nor awake, Carolyn Wentworth was in a state of perfect relaxation.

  “Open your eyes, Carolyn.”

  Still very much in a trance, Carolyn opened her eyes. Gordon grabbed a framed picture from under his chair and held it up for Jill and Carolyn to see.

  “Tell me what you see in this picture.”

  “It’s a castle,” said Carolyn. Her voice was slow and steady, soothing even. Listening to it, Jill felt herself grow more relaxed.

  “More than a castle,” said Gordon. “This is a fortress. Look how it is high on a hill. Look at the many protections around this castle.”

  “Yes, a fortress,” said Carolyn.

  “I want you to think of your mind as a fortress, like this one.”

  Carolyn stared at the picture. Her head was so loose on her shoulders she couldn’t hold it still, and it swayed back and forth.

  “The fortress of your mind has many protections built into it,” Gordon said. He spoke slowly, with long pauses between sentences. “There is a moat surrounding your fortress. Beyond the moat is a tall wall and the only way through that wall is for someone inside to drop the gate.”

  The relaxing tones of Gordon’s voice, combined with her own lack of sleep, were too much for Jill. Sitting upright in her chair, she closed her eyes and imagined her own castle. Her own fortress.

  “Inside these walls is an army who will protect the castle from all invaders,” Gordon said. “Are you thinking of your mind as this fortress?”

  “Yes,” said Carolyn.

  “Good, now tell me, why are there so many fortifications around your castle? What’s inside that you wish to protect?”

  Having drifted into her own fantasy, with her own castle, Jill saw a massive computer in the fortress. A computer full of secrets. The Network, the mission, Phillip, Helena, and Nicky, a thousand fake identities and phony papers Jill had created, the truth about her mother…

  “I see a queen,” Carolyn said. “The fortress is there to protect the queen.”

  “Describe the queen to me,” said Gordon.

  “She’s a beautiful woman, with long black hair. She is wearing blue jeans and a black leather jacket. She has a rifle over her shoulder.”

  Jill’s own fantasy was interrupted with this strange vision from her mother. A queen with a black leather jacket and a rifle? Her mom was full of surprises.

  Now Jill saw this woman, this queen in a leather jacket, sitting at the computer in Jill’s fortress.

  “Does your queen have a crown?” Gordon asked.

  In Jill’s mind, there was a crown, a silver tiara in fact. A queen in a black leather jacket with a silver tiara on her head.

  “No,” said Carolyn.

  Jill’s vision of the crown disappeared.

  “Thank you for telling me what you know about her,” said Gordon. “Now I’m going to tell you what I know. The queen hides where her enemies can never find her. She has a room in the tallest tower of the castle, in the very center of the grounds. All of the protections of this fortress are for her, because she is a sacred woman. Her word is law in this land, and she decreed the law many years ago. Do you believe me, Carolyn?”

  “Yes, I believe you.”

  “Carolyn, the fortress is your mind. Do you understand?”

&nb
sp; “Yes, the fortress is my mind.”

  “I am here today to talk to the queen.”

  A pause.

  “Okay,” Carolyn said.

  “To get to the queen, I need to get past the moat. You are going to lower the draw bridge for me. Do you understand?”

  “Yes.”

  “The drawbridge takes ten seconds to come down. I will count backwards. When I am done, the drawbridge will be open. 10…9…8…7...”

  Jill saw the drawbridge falling in her own mind as Gordon counted.

  “…3…2…1. Is the draw bridge down?

  “It is,” said Carolyn.

  “Good. Now I’m going to walk across it. When I get to the other side, the guards are going to let me in. Okay?”

  “Okay.”

  “It takes me ten seconds to walk across. 10…9…”

  Jill imagined Gordon walking across the drawbridge of her own castle. It was a soothing, pleasant image. He was welcome here.

  “I’m inside the castle walls now,” said Gordon. “I am walking to the tallest tower. No one is trying to stop me. It takes me ten seconds to get there. 10…9….”

  The counting was irresistible. Jill felt herself falling deeper and deeper into the fantasy with each number Gordon said.

  “I’m at the base of the tower now. The guards are letting me in. I am going to climb the stairs. It takes me twenty seconds to climb them. Here we go. 20…19…”

  Gordon was trotting up the steps of Jill’s mind, his feet quietly hitting the stone in a soothing rhythm.

  “I’m at the entrance to the queen’s chamber now,” he said. “I’m going to knock three times. You will decide if she lets me in.”

  Gordon reached down with his fist and rapped gently on an end table three times.

  In Jill’s mind, the door swung open and the woman in the black leather jacket brought Gordon inside. But in her ears, Jill heard nothing.

  “Carolyn?” Gordon said. “Carolyn, may I come in to see the queen?”

  “You may,” Carolyn said. “She’s opening the door for you.”

  “Very good. Starting now, you will play the role of the queen. Anything she would say, you will say. Nod if you understand.”