Free Killer Dreams by Iris Johansen Page B

fault.” She met his eyes. “And unless I stop Sanborne, it’s going to keep on happening. I can’t stand that, Royd.”
    “Killing Sanborne won’t get rid of REM-4. If that would have done it, I’d have targeted Sanborne as soon as I escaped Garwood. There’s still Boch. Kill one and the other one would snatch the REM-4 disk and go undercover. I have to get rid of both and the facility and every record and formula they used at Garwood. I’m going to wipe REM-4 from the face of the earth. No one is ever going to be able to do what they did to me again.” His tone roughened. “And you’re not going to ruin my chances of doing that by killing Sanborne. I want it all.”
    There was such passion and intensity in his voice that it stunned her for an instant. “And what would you do if I did?”
    “You don’t want to know. You think I’m angry now?”
    Yes, she could imagine the lethal rage that would burn through Royd if he was thwarted. “You may have to deal with it.”
    “The hell I will. If you want Sanborne, you’ll have to come over to my camp.”
    She stiffened. “I don’t want to—”
    “Do you think I want you? But I may need you. When I came here, I thought there was a chance that I could squeeze information out of you that would make it easier for me to take down Sanborne and Boch. You were listed on the Amsterdam experiment list. I thought you were working with them.”
    “I’m sorry to disappoint you.”
    “You did disappoint me. I didn’t want to have to take out Caprio. I wanted to zero in on you.”
    She smiled without mirth. “And instead you were forced to save my worthless life.”
    “It’s not worthless to me. I won’t let it be worthless.”
    “I was joking. My life has meaning. I’m a doctor and I help people. I’m a mother and I believe I’m a good one. And I don’t give a damn about whether I’m of worth to you.”
    “Yes, you do. You feel you owe me something and I’ll use that to the max.” He leaned back in the chair and stretched his legs out before him. “So get used to the idea that you’re not killing Sanborne until I give you the go-ahead. Now relax and let me talk.”
    “Stop giving me orders. I’ll do what I wish, Royd.”
    “And do you wish REM-4 to survive Sanborne? It will, you know. Mind control is just too tempting not to attract the scumbags of the world. The military of half a dozen countries have been experimenting with it for decades. But everyone struck out until you came along. You handed the answer to Sanborne on a silver platter. You have to help me take it back.”
    “I don’t have to do anything I don’t want to do.”
    “But you want to do this. You may not like me taking over the action, but this is something you want to do. Jock told me you’d have gone into the facility and destroyed every bit of your research connected with REM-4 if you could have done it. Instead, you opted to kill the snake by chopping off the head. You can’t kill REM-4 by cutting off Sanborne’s head. You have to blow the entire beast to kingdom come.”
    She drew a deep breath and tried to rid herself of the resentment his bluntness had stirred. He was right. She hadn’t thought past getting rid of Sanborne when she’d found she couldn’t get into the facility. Hell, she hadn’t even known about Boch.
    His gaze was narrowed on her face. “If you regret what you did, then do something about it. Get rid of REM-4, dammit.”
    She didn’t speak for a moment. “How?”
    “Good, a breakthrough.” He leaned forward. “My man at the facility, Nate Kelly, says that during the last six months Sanborne seemed to be trying to arrange a complete break from everything and everyone connected with the REM-4 facility here. A total cleanup. He said that there were rumors of a move out even before they started shipping out equipment and records. Sanborne’s either fired or transferred the twelve key personnel who had ever been connected with the experiments. Kelly