Syndrome

Without looking back, he pulled up the steps and slammed the door. The rotor had already begun revving higher, and in moments the chopper had begun its ascent out over the dark river.

'You have been warned to identify yourself,' came the futile megaphone. The chopper had all but disappeared into the dark and rain when she heard a shot fired from the direction of the police car.

It must have been an accident, she told herself.There's no way-

But the smooth hum of the engine dying away in the fog abruptly changed tone, then started to sputter. Ten seconds later, there was silence.

She was so engaged she didn't notice the stirring at her feet. A moment thereafter, she saw the towering bulk of Kenji Noda rise up beside her. Then she felt his grip on her wrist and realized he was dragging, and pulling her to the edge of the pier. Then she felt a shove and a swirl of dark air around her, followed by the splash of cold water. Surprisingly, it didn't really feel freezing-it just felt refreshingly brisk. With one hand she grabbed one of the square concrete pillars that was supporting the pier. The mysterious strength she'd had from time to time was coming back once more.

That was when she heard a vicious howl, wolf-like, that transmuted into a growl, and the next thing she saw was a hazy form hurtle past her and splash into the water.

Actually, it was two forms, and the darker one was flailing while the lighter one bore down on him, her teeth on his throat.

'No!' she screamed 'Don't.'

As the pair drifted past her in the current, still linked she reached out and seized Knickers' collar, yanking her back. Then she watched helplessly as Kenji Noda disappeared into the dark. Could he swim with one arm?

The cops were futilely searching the wide river with their searchlight, looking for the helicopter, for anything, but there was nothing left to see.

She quietly made for shore, even as she and Knickers were being swept downstream by the current When they finally reached the bank, it was somewhere around Morton Street. Oddly enough, she wasn't cold and she wasn't tired when she drew herself up onto the rocks, Knickers at her side. She just lay panting for a moment.

'Come here, baby,' she said drawing Knickers to her. The dog was shivering and she knew she had to get her home soon. 'Thank God you can't talk. I think something very evil just passed from the world.'

Epilogue

Thursday, June 25

10:49p.m.

'You're really something,' Stone declared, falling back onto the rumpled sheets. 'What's come over you lately? Don't you ever get tired?'

'Maybe I'm just happy to be alive,' Ally said, smiling as she ran a finger down his chest. 'I'm catching up on all the living I've been missing out on.'

Her heart was definitely on the mend, in several ways. She was beginning to think she was in love. After Steve went missing, she thought that love would never happen again, but maybe it had.

'Know what,' he said, rising up, 'I've really worked up an appetite. How about you? Think I'll make an omelet. Got any eggs left in the fridge?'

'Should be some,' she said. 'But I'll pass. Anything I eat after ten goes straight to places on my body that don't need further reinforcement.'

It was so nice just to have someone to be near again. Her nervous system was still recovering from the harrowing experience down on the pier. In fact, she wasn't really surewhatactually had happened. The crashed McDonnell Douglas was retrieved from the water the next day, but there were no bodies aboard. Had Winston Bartlett drowned and his body been swept out to sea by the tide? Also, there must have been a third person, a pilot. And what about Kenji Noda, who also was missing? Did he make it to shore? In any case, they all had disappeared. The case was closed. And since nobody had found a will, New York State was currently the executor of his fortune. Eileen Bartlett was sole heir. Her waiting game had paid off superbly. The price of her Gerex shares was doubling every two weeks. She was about to become a very rich woman indeed.

But had Winston Bartlett really gone to a watery grave? Ally somehow doubted it. He had too much invested in life to cash in so easily.

As she watched Stone get up and swathe himself in a huge white towel before heading for the kitchen, she found herself replaying that harrowing scene at the pier. She kept trying to remember something Bartlett had said about forming some kind of society. Was she fantasizing or had he said he was going to do that and then offer the Beta procedure to its members? What was he going to call it? Try as she might, she couldn't remember. She had developed a mental block that her mind was using to shield her psyche from the horror of that evening.

That night she'd first considered going to New York Hospital emergency room for the gunshot wound but then she'd thought it over and decided there were too many things to explain that couldn't be explained. Instead she just went home and washed the wound and filled it up with Neosporin. She didn't even tell Nina. The next morning, scar tissue was already forming. Now it was completely healed and even the scar had all but disappeared.

Had the Beta really worked? She wanted to tell Stone about that possibility, but she wasn't sure how he would take it. And she absolutely did not want to end up in his book.

She pulled on a terry cloth robe and slippers and padded her way into the kitchen. She wasn't hungry, but she felt like a glass of wine. She poked around in the wine rack in the kitchen closet and came up with a bottle of Bordeaux. Stone was cracking large white eggs into a stoneware bowl.

'Sure I can't make some for you?' he asked, leaning over to buss her hair as she searched in the drawer for a corkscrew. 'I'm gonna throw in some cheddar, but I'll leave it out if that doesn't work for you.'

'I just want a glass of red wine,' she said, retrieving the corkscrew. 'And I need a memory jogging. What's a word that makes you think of living a long time? I. . I want to look up something on the Internet and I don't know how to start.'

'What kind of word is it?' he queried. 'I'm a wordsmith. Twenty questions. Is it a noun, a verb, an adjective?'

'If I could remember that, I might be able to come up with it.'

He was tossing a quarter stick of butter into the pan. 'Hey, I once learned hypnosis. Why don't you let me take you under?'

'Does that really work?'

'It's how I come up with interview stuff sometimes, from years ago. We really do have a complicated memory system. I thinkeverythingyou ever knew is buried somewhere, maybe in a tiny little wrinkle.'

She suspected he might be right. In this case the repressed info was still there; it just had been deliberately covered over and hidden.

'So do you want to hypnotize me? You're sure you know how?'

'I'm not boasting, but I could make Methuselah remember the day he first got out of diapers.'

She stared at him. 'My God, I think that's it. Methuselah. I think that's the word I couldn't remember.' She kissed him on the mouth enthusiastically. 'I've got to check something.'

She popped the cork and poured herself a glass.

'Want some?'

'I'm not sure what goes with eggs at this time of night. Probably tequila.'

'Good luck. You know where to find it. There're some limes in the fridge. Right now I'm going to fire up the Dell and do a little search.'

'Now?' His face dropped. 'How about a little romantic. . whatever?'

'Come and join me. Bring your plate. We'll go exploring in cyberspace. It'll be a romantic voyage. I've got a hunch about something.'

She walked back into the bedroom and clicked on the computer. She sipped at her wine, deep but still fruity