The Memory Painter: A Novel by Gwendolyn Womack

Author:Gwendolyn Womack [Womack, Gwendolyn]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9781250053046
Publisher: Picador
Published: 2015-04-28T07:00:00+00:00

TWENTY-EIGHT

MARCH 8, 1982

Michael woke up, disoriented. He hadn’t meant to fall sleep. Unlike the recalls, this dream had been filled with disjointed images. The Egyptian queen had been with him again, only Michael hadn’t been himself, but a younger man—and she had drawn a magnificent symbol in the sand. Why?

Right on the cusp of remembering more, Michael looked over at the clock. He was surprised to see that it was already seven o’clock at night. He sat up with a start and the fragments of the dream vanished.

His back protested as he stretched his legs out on the couch. He had been sleeping on it for the past four days after Diana had locked herself in their bedroom.

The team had stopped talking to each other. All communication had broken down, and even Conrad had vanished. The state of Michael and Diana’s apartment now rivaled Finn’s. The dishes hadn’t been washed for days and no one had done laundry or taken out the garbage. Michael had not showered or shaved. He felt like a survivalist—he couldn’t even remember the last time he’d had anything to drink.

He began to review what had happened before he’d fallen asleep. Finn had called and begun questioning him about Lord Asano’s death in formal Japanese. The stilted questions had been asked with probing politeness, but they had shattered Michael’s psyche. It didn’t matter who Finn had been in that lifetime—too many people had been affected by Lord Asano’s mistakes. Michael had replied in Japanese with the etiquette of a lord from the seventeenth century. “I remembered Asano Naganori’s life. The fall of his house rests on his shoulders alone.”

Finn did not speak. Michael felt karma hanging between them like a deadweight and didn’t know what to say.

“Finn?”

“I don’t know what to do.”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s unbelievable.” Finn stammered, “I-I don’t know what to do.”

“Do what? You’re not making any sense.”

Finn started to babble, saying that it was worse than he thought. It took ten minutes for Michael to pry an explanation from him.

“Conrad is Lord Kira. He wants us all dead.”

Michael sat down on the sofa and tried to stay calm. He could not give in to Asano’s rage. The minute he allowed himself to be ruled by the emotions of these memories, he would go truly insane. He told Finn, “I’ve already decided to take Conrad off the team.”

“It’s not enough,” Finn argued. “We have to leave. You don’t understand how dangerous he is.”

But Michael did understand. He had gone to the lab and found three bottles of Renovo in Conrad’s desk, and one bottle only had two pills remaining. Michael did the math. Conrad had been double dosing and lying to them all. He knew he had no choice but to shut down the study and extricate Conrad from their lives.

Now that Michael was awake, he wanted to get the confrontation over with, and only hoped that he was well enough to drive. He’d been feeling very out of body for the past several days.

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