Part of me wanted to slug Zac for ditching us like that. But another part of me was happy he had. At least I could spend some more alone time with Will.

I glanced over, he was staring out the glass windows that looked out over the courtyard outside the hotel.

"God, he's gorgeous," I heard my mind whisper. I wanted to kiss him again. I put my arm around him and pulled him close.

He glanced over at me and smiled one of the sweetest smiles I had ever seen.

"Great view, huh?"

He grinned.

"Yup, it sure is," I smiled back without looking out the windows.

He blushed and looked down at his feet. I could smell his cologne, his hair; it was making me dizzy.

The elevator came to a halt, the doors rolled open. I glanced over my shoulder as three girls piled in behind us.

"Oh my god," I heard one of them whisper.

"Oh, son of a bitch," I muttered as Will looked over his shoulder at the teenies standing behind us.

I immediately dropped my arm and tried to remain calm.

"Once again I am in hell," I thought to myself.

"Taylor Hanson," one asked with a shaking voice.

"Hi," I smiled turning around.

"Oh my god! It is you," one screamed.

Instantly I wished I hadn't replied to her. I glanced over at Will, he looked just as desperate as I did.

"Oh my god, we love you guys," the other two giggled hysterically.

"Hey, thanks," I tried to offer up, but it wasn't enough.

"Are you guys staying here," the blond asked.

"Can you come to our room," the other asked before I could even answer.

The elevator stopped, the doors rolled open. I shoved Will forward through the mob of girls slapping the 'close door' button as I turned around.

"Hey guys, there's Zac," I yelled pointing down through the lower windows of the elevator.

"Oh my god, where," they all turned around.

The doors rolled shut.

"It's not going to take them long to figure out what you did," Will grinned at me.

"Long enough for us to find somewhere to hide," I smiled.

Will smiled back at me. A tingling sensation rushed over me.

*          *          *          *          *

I grabbed his hand and pulled him down the hallway. I knew we didn't have much time before those velociraptors in teenage girl disguises figured out what had happened.

"Where we going?" he asked as I pulled him down the hall.

"Uh," I stuttered realizing I really didn't have an idea.

A bell dinged and we jumped as the doors to the service elevator rolled open.

The man in the hotel uniform passed us and walked around the corner.

"Quick," I blurted jumping into the freight elevator pulling Tay behind me.

The doors rolled shut just as we darted in.

"Where too," he smiled.

"Roof," I grinned.

He looked at me and smiled softly.

"What?" I whispered quietly.

"I love going up on roofs," he grinned.

"Oh," I smiled.

"I know," I replied without knowing why.

"Huh?"

"I mean, I don't know, I," I stuttered. His gorgeous eyes were doubling the confusion in my mind as they zeroed in on me.

"I don't know, it just felt right," I muttered looking down at the floor.

"Like everything else about us," he said quietly as he ran his soft fingers under my chin, tilting his face up to meet mine.

"Your eyes are so beautiful," he said quietly.

I smiled.

"The green, with the honey tinges around the center, it's," he sighed as he looked at me.

"It's no comparison to the sparkling depth of the ones I'm looking at," I replied.

He blushed.

I smiled

*          *          *          *          *

"Fox," I said quietly calling him over.

"What's up?"

"Look at this," I exclaimed pointing to a recent access of files under the restricted category.

"Someone's been poking around," he said quietly.

Margaret Connors stood off in the distance behind us.

"What are you doing?" I nearly bit as he started clicking away at the keyboard.

"Someone's been poking around, why can't we do a little ourselves," he grinned.

"I'll try to keep her attention while you see what you can find," I said as I turned toward the stiff woman who had been watching us like a hawk.

"There's a new project," I said as I walked up.

"I don't know much of anything that goes on down here," she replied before I could finish.

"Called the M.A.S.T.," I continued, her eyes grew wide.

"I see you know what I'm talking about," I grinned.

"That is supposed to be restricted information," she almost gasped.

"Miss Connors, we are the FBI, nothing is restricted from us."

"Well," she said hesitantly.

"I'll remind you that your total cooperation with us, will speed up our time here and have us out of your hair as soon as possible."

She glanced to her left, and then at me. I looked over toward where she had been staring. There was a console.

"Ok," I said walking over.

"Here is where you can access some of the information, I can't show you everything because even I don't have access to that myself," she said as she sat down beside me.

"What exactly was the MAST used for?" I asked.

"To my knowledge it hasn't even been used," she replied stressing 'been.'

"Our records indicate that it was recently tampered with," I replied knowing Fox would have crapped an egg if he knew I had divulged some of our own information.

"Tampered?" she gasped.

"Yes."

"That's absurd, there's no way anyone could have accessed it," she said clicking and typing through the windows and screens that flashed up in front of her.

"No, I'm not even showing activation," she said.

"Look," I pointed to the usage listings.

"See there," I pointed out.

"What, it's the listings of when these files were last accessed," she said stopping abruptly.

"Ok, look at the last active date on the main schematic diagrams," I said pointing to the listing on the screen.

"Yes, I see, that was sometime a year ago," she said.

"Now, look at the detail listing here," I pointed.

"What?" she said in shock.

"It shows it was accessed just today," I replied with a raised eyebrow.

"But that's not possible, no one has even had access to this computer, you can't get into anything involving the MAST from any other station except this one."

"What is this?" I asked pointing to a large plexi-sheet that extended up from the back of the desk.

"That's a view monitor of sorts, but it hasn't even been used yet," she replied.

"It looks like clear glass," I asked.

"No, it's a flexible poly-blend fiber, I can't access it because you need a synaptic file, but when one is inserted into the system it makes the screen flex away from you, and the central section becomes a holographic monitor of sorts, it allows you to see in three dimensions."

"Spiffy," Fox said suddenly from behind us. He had a very sneaky grin on his face.

Margaret Connors flinched slightly.

"As I was saying, once it is activated you can view the information stored on a synaptic chip in 3D."

"Where are some synaptic chips," Fox asked.

"That's the thing, none have been implanted yet.

"Implanted," I asked in slight shock.

"Yes, you see, the chip is implanted in an individual. Once it is in there you can, well basically control the person, or just tap into what they are seeing or thinking,"

"Sounds," I started.

"Illegal," she said with a frown.

"Yeah," I replied.

"Now you see why it hasn't even been tested yet."

"Where is this MAST device?" I asked.

"Right here," she said tapping the top of the small screen in front of her.

"This, this is the MAST?" I asked in slight shock.

"Yes, this is the central brain, all the features are accessed here," she replied.

"Thanks for the info," Fox said pulling my chair back from the monitor. I could tell by the look on his face that he had discovered something.

Miss Connors looked totally taken off guard.

"I can show you out," she said as she stood up switching the system into sleep mode.

"Ok, what did you find," I asked as we closed the car doors.

"Well, our little friend in there wasn't totally honest with you."

"What's that," I asked as he held a small green plastic rectangle about two inches long in the air.

"This, I'm guessing is a synaptic chip," he grinned.

"Where was it?!"

"Sitting in a small metal drawer."

"Lot of good it will do us, we can't access it on our computer," I said as I put the car into gear and backed out of the space.

"No, but I can get back into the system," he grinned.

"She said there was no way to do that."

"Not from the MAST, no, but from the computer I was on."

"Ok, I'm lost," I said as we passed the security checkpoint.

"The computer I was on, has a direct connection to the internet, the same system that stores some very strange files," he said.

"Like what?"

"Well I only had a chance to look at them before I realized I could do it from my computer back at the office."

"You left yourself a back door to use, didn't you," I asked with a smile.

"Of course, so anyway, I'm thinking these files are some kind of link to what has been happening with the device. Don't quote me, but I think the files themselves may hold direct information about the actual people that it was used on."

"How many files were there," I asked.

"About twelve, maybe a little more or less, plus there was another file, one that simply said 'public,' so I have no clue what to think about that."

"Well, as soon as we get back to headquarters, I think we might give some of our people a ring, maybe they can figure out what we can do with this," I said holding the chip up to the light.

This was going to be a tough case, but somewhere in the back of my mind I was sure that the answer was right under our noses.

*          *          *          *          *

"Oh God," I moaned slightly as he kissed my neck.

"I love you so much," he whispered through his kisses. I leaned back against the wall of the elevator, Will's face buried in my neck. His warm mouth kissing and licking at my collar bone. I gasped as I felt his teeth make contact with my nipple through my shirt. I stumbled against the other wall.

The elevator jerked.

Suddenly I heard metal squealing. I looked over, Will stood there looking at me scared. A Dr. Pepper in his hand.

"Taylor, snap out of it," he yelled grabbing a hold of me as I fell back into the corner.

"Your family is up there," he screamed as everything began to shake violently from side to side.

He reached back and slapped me.

*          *          *          *          *

My mind scrambled as I felt my hand strike his face. Suddenly the elevator was filled with light again. The dim red glow was gone. The shaking stopped.

"Taylor," I cried suddenly as I saw him pressed up against the wall of the elevator.

"Will," he muttered looking at me.

"Did you see that?" I asked quietly.

"Yes, what happened?" he asked.

I glanced over. The 'emergency stop,' button was pushed in.

"You hit the stop button on the elevator," I exclaimed as I pulled it out.

The elevator jerked and began moving upward again.

"Will, no, something was happening," he said looking at me with a look of fear that shook me to the core.

"I know, it, it was like," I stuttered.

"An earthquake," he whispered as the doors rolled open.

Outside the doors sat a small hallway. A door marked 'Roof' was the only thing visible at the end.

"We're in Florida though," I said confused.

"No, I think it was something," Tay stuttered.

"What," I asked again, confused as tears filled my eyes.

"I don't know. I don't even know," he said quietly as he put his hand up to his head as we walked toward the door.


On to Chapter Nine

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Memories ... Of A Forgotten Past is Copyright © 2000 by Taylor W. Quest.
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