Part 17 (2/2)
It was Jill's voice from upstairs. She sounded a little frightened. Probably looking for her. Kara hurried to the foot of the stairs.
”I'm down here, hon. Everything okay?”
She held her breath. Please say yes Please say yes.
”Sure,” Jill said, smiling from the top of the stairs.
Kara exhaled.
Jill said, ”But who's Janine?”
Biting back a scream, Kara fought off the blackness that crowded the edges of her vision and forced herself up the stairs.
”Wh-where did you heard that name?”
”You okay, Mom?'
”Just tell me!”
”I read it. Mom, what's wrong?”
”Where? In the bathroom?”
”No. In my bedroom.”
Kara brushed past her alarmed daughter and hurried to the bedroom at the far end of the hall. She burst through the door and didn't notice anything at first. Then she saw the thin letters sliced into the wall above Jill's bed.
Kara couldn't hold it in any longer. She stood in the doorway and screamed.
6:50 A.M.
They made it to the New Jersey Turnpike in record time.
After Kara had calmed herself and soothed a very frightened and mystified Jill, she called Dr. Gates. He wasn't available yet, according to the answering service. Kara couldn't wait. She had to get away from the farm, away from those words carved in the wall above Jill's bed. She threw some clothes in a couple of suitcases, loaded the car, and fled for New York.
As she drove, she could not escape the vague, ominous feeling that she was heading toward even worse trouble. She laid that off to her long-time aversion to New York, and the cruel irony of having to run for help to the city she loathed.
Along the way, Kara pulled into every rest stop she saw and called Dr. Gates' number. It wasn't until the Adm. Wm. Halsey Plaza near Newark Airport that she reached him.
”Strange things are happening,” she told him. ”Frightening things.”
Dr. Gates' voice conveyed all the concern of a man inquiring about a train schedule.
”What, for instance?”
She didn't want to talk about them now, and she didn't want him to put off seeing her.
”I'm only half an hour from the city. I'll tell you when I get there. When can you see me?”
”Well... my schedule is already filled, perhaps I can-”
”It's got to be today. If you can't squeeze me in, perhaps you can recommend someone.”
Kara didn't want to see anyone else, but she sensed Dr. Gates would never send her to a rival.
”Well, since you seem to think this is an emergency, perhaps I can add you on at the end of the schedule. Please be at my office at five.”
”I'll be there.”
She hung up, feeling a little better. The foreboding still clung to her like a shroud, but at least she was doing something about whatever was happening to her. She had taken the first step toward beating this. And she would would beat it. Kara had structured her life so as to maximize her autonomy. No one controlled her. No one ever would. beat it. Kara had structured her life so as to maximize her autonomy. No one controlled her. No one ever would.
Especially not something or someone who called herself ”Janine.”
10:29 A.M.
Rob recognized her voice immediately. It gave an instant lift to an otherwise dreary Monday.
”Kara! What's up? How's the farm?”
”It's fine,” she said. She sounded subdued. ”Rob, there's something I've got to ask you.”
Rob glanced around the squad room. His desk was situated near its center, surrounded by everybody else's. He wished he had more privacy, but the enclosed office went to the lieutenant. It didn't matter much at the moment. Karpinsky and Reddington were in the corner, arguing animatedly with Rob's partner, Augustino Manetti; Madsen and Carter were at their own desks, banging out reports on their typewriters. There was enough racket to cover his end of the conversation.
”Sure. Go ahead.”
”You were with me on Thursday in Dr. Gates office when he hypnotized me, right?”
”Right.”
”Were you with me all the time? I mean, did you ever leave the room?”
”Not for a second. Gates did. He left to get some files. But I never budged from my chair.”
”So he didn't plant any post-hypnotic suggestions in me then, right?”
Rob was becoming concerned now. And he could tell Kara was upset.
”Kara, what's this all about?”
”A couple of weird things happened over the weekend.”
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