Could the reflector devices be one-way? So they could still read other people? That would be cool.
“Just relax and this won’t hurt at all,” the woman said.
Trouble was, she’d never been good at taking orders. Kaitlin felt the first tendrils of another consciousness entering her mind, and she locked up tight. Or she tried to.
Then she gasped as the pain hit her. It was like a drill probing into her mind, prying open her thoughts, digging into her brain. She half-expected her head to explode and almost wished it would.
She’d been tortured before and never broken. This time, she was pretty sure she would have said anything to stop it. Except she didn’t have the choice. It seemed to go on forever, then the pain vanished, and she collapsed onto the bed, eyes squeezed shut.
“You just needed to stop fighting,” the woman said.
“You might have mentioned that,” Kaitlin muttered through clenched teeth.
“I did.”
“Reminded me, then.”
She stayed very still, a little worried that something might be broken inside her head.
“There’s no permanent damage,” the woman said.
“Good to know.” She forced herself up, her stomach churning, half anticipating that the pain would come back. She had a feeling they weren’t finished with her.
“We’re done.”
“Also good to know. So what happens now? Are you going to kill us?”
A look passed between the two of them. “No, we’ll keep you as leverage.” She glanced across at Josie. “She’s broken. What happened?”
“Brainwashed by some assholes who were experimenting with telepathy.”
“I hope you killed them.”
“Oh, he’s dead.” She forced her brain to work. “Leverage for what? Just who are you people and what do you want?”
Another look. She presumed they were communicating. “My name is Stella. And this is Clyde. As you guessed, we’re from the future. An organization called the Tel Group. And we’re here to complete a job.”
“What job?” Could it be tied in with Kane’s mission?
“That, you don’t need to know.”
She really wanted to deny that vociferously. She did need to know. Right now, she had no way to get the information out, but on the off chance that Kane managed to contact her, it would be great to have something useful to tell him. At least that way, this whole clusterfuck wouldn’t have been a complete waste of time.
Unfortunately, at that point, her questioners turned around and headed for the door.
“Hey, wait,” she called out.
The woman turned. “We must go and make arrangements for our departure.”
“And what about us?”
They did that obvious communicating between themselves thing again and the woman nodded. “You’ll be coming with us.”
Then they disappeared out the door and it locked behind them.
“At least we’re still alive.” Kaitlin tried to sound cheerful. “And staying that way for the moment.”
Josie sighed. “But who knows for how long. Where the hell is that fucker, Kane?”