Free It's Always Been You by Victoria Paige Page B

man was a new recruit of BSI and had been her constant shadow for the past two weeks whenever Travis was not around to keep an eye on her.
    “Ready, Ms. Kincaid?” Sam smiled congenially. Though barely out of his mid-twenties, he had a mature and calm carriage. He couldn’t exactly be described as an attractive man. His nose was crooked and wide at the base. His skin had a few pockmarks; his eyes were beady. He wasn’t a tall man either, but his fit physique screamed of power behind every step.
    “I told you to call me Caitlin.” She smiled at him.
    Her sleep and eat cycle lasted for two days; after which, Travis quickly whisked her to his personal physician for a full-medical checkup. Afterward, he took her straight to the CIA psychological rehabilitation facility called the NEST (Neurological & Empathetic Stimulation & Testing).  
    Sam loaded her up in the Audi sedan, and soon, they were on their way to her appointment. It had become her routine—sessions from ten a.m. to three p.m. at the NEST. Her shrink, Dr. Monica Lester, arranged a battery of tests on her first day. A fifty-page questionnaire, ink blots, some abstract evaluations, and of course, a general one-on-one verbal assessment. Travis accompanied her on her first three visits, and worked in the building’s cafeteria as he waited for her. But BSI had consumed his time in the past week and he had depended on Sam to take her to her appointments. Travis was anxious to get her well and was annoyed that he wasn’t allowed to share in her sessions with Dr. Lester yet.
    This was a good thing.
    Dr. Lester wanted her to process her feelings for Jase. The man who had been her constant for three years, who had, in all likelihood, stolen her from another man. Did she hate Jase? She couldn’t. Ever. But there was a hurt that went deep; she felt betrayed. Her feelings for Jase were more platonic than romantic; she acknowledged that now. And if Caitlin were honest with herself, sex between them was more of just a release. She had never reached the degree of sexual tension that she was currently experiencing whenever she was in the presence of Travis.
    Sam wasn’t much of a talker when he was driving. Caitlin noticed how his eyes continually scanned the road before and behind them. She resumed her recollection of the strange procedure from yesterday. Dr. Lester turned her over to a technician in a lab coat who didn’t even bother to identify herself. But Caitlin noted that the tech’s name plate read “Smith.” Really?
    She was led into a room and sat in a reclining chair outfitted with an overhead helmet fitted with probes.  
    “Uh . . . what are we doing?” Caitlin asked the technician warily.
    “That’s a neural spectroscope. It monitors your brain activity while we feed you images of decryption programs.”
    At Caitlin’s blank look, the technician continued, “The machine has the capability to adjust biofeedback to enable your brain to relearn skills that are suppressed in the frontal and temporal lobes, which regulate decision-making and technical information necessary to re-establish your tradecraft.”
    Hacking.
    “How about my short and long term memories?”  
    The technician shook her head. “This won’t affect the recovery of that at all.”
    Caitlin sighed as she pulled herself out of her ruminations when the car zipped down a slope into the underground parking of the building that housed the NEST. Sam found a spot near the bank of elevators. It wasn’t a crowded garage. Caitlin wondered who were the other tenants of the building.  
    They entered the elevator, swiping the ID that was handed to her on her first day at the facility. The number for the top floor immediately illuminated, and they were on their way.
    When the elevator doors slid open, Dr. Lester was already waiting for her at the reception area. Caitlin was unsettled with the attention being accorded to her. Was she really that special? Or was it because she was sitting on top