Free The Facilitator by Sahara Kelly Page B

with one hand and steadying himself with the other. “I should have known that a joint facilitation might make us both dizzy the first time.” His words sounded strange in her ears, but then she picked up his silent signal. Say nothing .
    “You’re right.” She nodded and gripped him hard for a second or two, indicating her assent. “I need to get my balance back.”
    The monitoring nurse rushed in, face full of concern. “Oh my. Are you two all right?” There were two techs right behind her.
    “Yeah,” said Johann. “We’re good. A bit disoriented, but overall I’d say the joint experiment worked.” He glanced at the techs. “You should have enough data there to confirm. We got crowd completion and total immersion.”
    Martine swallowed and added her mite. “It was pretty amazing. Seemed like hundreds of people to me, but it probably wasn’t. There was a shitload of birds, though. Much more detailed than usual and no ill effects until we returned. And I’m pretty much okay now. Just a quick stab of nausea. It’s gone already.” She straightened.
    “Debriefing in fifteen minutes?” One of the techs stared at them eagerly.
    “Sure,” Johann agreed.
    “Yeah, that would be fine,” Martine concurred.
    She lied. It was anything but fine. However, for right now she’d have to keep everything churning inside her from erupting. At least until she could get some private time with Johann.
    And ask him the thousand and one questions fighting each other for supremacy in her mind.
    Trouble was, she had a strong feeling she was going to seriously hate the answers.
    Leaving Mrs. Alder to the tender ministrations of the Eternal Tranquility staff, Martine and Johann walked away together, on the surface looking like just another couple of facilitators who’d earned their pay for the day.
    Martine found herself gripping Johann’s hand as they strolled. He squeezed back, but other than that there was silence between them.
    There was nothing they could say at this point, when who knew what kind of surveillance they were under. Besides, she wasn’t sure she was ready to confront what she’d just learned about herself.
    She was a killer. A murderer. She’d fought with Taber for his life force and she’d stripped it from him, pushing him into the beyond before his time. She’d done something that was so outrageous, so hideous, so not part of anything she was, that it was beyond her understanding.
    As she turned the information over in her mind, guilt and horror faded, to be replaced by a dawning anger. A cold fury that crept inexorably over her until she was afraid she might be glowing with it.
    Somebody had indeed turned her into a tool. A tool for killing.
    And that, Martine knew, had to be stopped.
    Now.

Chapter Seven
    Sleep proved an elusive luxury for Martine as she lay in bed that night. She tossed and turned, closed her eyes, activated her white-noise generator—nothing calmed the turbulence of her thoughts.
    Johann wouldn’t be there to hold her either. He’d let her know he’d been delayed in R&D, soothing the froth of excitement rippling through the department. It was only to be expected, since between the two of them they’d accomplished something that was unique on one hand, and could pave the way to even greater profits for Eternal Tranquility on the other.
    Now ET could offer not just peaceful final moments, but exciting and fulfilling ones as well. Be part of your favorite soccer team and spend your last seconds scoring a winning goal.
    Stand in the center of New York City on New Year’s Eve with half a million of your closest friends and pass on at the stroke of midnight.
    For only a slight increase in the fee, Eternal Tranquility could now send you off with the cheers of the masses ringing in your ears. The possibilities were pretty damn endless, and Marketing would probably have a field day with it. Which was a good thing since they didn’t seem to do much else but change the background