Memory Zero (29 page)

He shrugged. “You have talents. Granted, they’re just developing and not yet understood, but they are talents that will be quite formidable, nonetheless.”

Talents suggested more than one, and as far as she knew, she only had the one. How would some weird ability to sense things like the kites help him in whatever mad scheme he had going on here?

“That makes about as much sense as you becoming a vampire,” she retorted. “Speak English, Jack. Or has turning robbed you of that ability?”

The vein ticked a little harder. Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to make him angry, but in the past, an angry Jack had always been a verbal one. He’d give away more than he intended if she got to him.

All she had to do then was survive that anger.

The chair thumped forward again. “I plan a takeover. This war is not happening soon enough for my liking. You, dear friend, will assist me in achieving my goal.”

She raised her eyebrows. “Is this war you’re talking about the one in which the human race will be the loser?”

“Yes.”

“Well, in case it’s escaped your notice, I’m human. Guess which side of the line I tend to fall on?”

His smile was smug, like that of a rat that had just eaten the cat. “You’re anything but human, my dear Samantha.”

She stared at him, uncertain whether she should believe him or not. Jack could lie with the best of them, but usually, she could tell when he did. He wasn’t lying now. She clenched her fists. Damn it, she
was
human, despite what that unknown chromosome Finley had found might reveal. She was human. Nothing more, nothing less.

“What is the one thing you have wanted?” he continued softly. “The one thing you have searched for all these years?”

He knew the answer to those questions. He’d helped her search the records often enough. But was he also the reason she’d found nothing?

His smile grew, as did the coldness in his eyes. He leaned forward and slid a sheet of paper across the table toward her. “Part one of the answers. The first link in the trail to who you really are. Please, feel free to look. It’s only a taste of what I know.”

She stared at that sheet of paper, her throat dry. It was tempting, so very tempting. The desire to know who she really was, to know who her parents, who her grandparents, were—to find whatever kin might still be out there—was something she’d lived and breathed since she’d been a teenager and awakened from a nightmare to find herself abandoned in the shelter. If the information was all that he promised, she’d want more, there was no doubt about it. She didn’t know if she was strong enough to resist the lure once she’d taken a bite.

Better by far to refuse straight out.

She met Jack’s gaze. “Since I seem to be your guest,
it’s impossible for me to discover whether the information on that sheet is the truth or lies.”

“The sheet tells no lies.”

“But you do, Jack.”

His mouth narrowed to a slash of anger. “I’ve told you no lies today.”

She considered him for a moment. So far, he’d done nothing to hurt her. If he hoped to enlist her in his mad schemes, he might just hold off using force for a while. Maybe she should push his generosity and see just how far he was willing to go.

“All right then. Who attacked me in my apartment, and why bomb it afterward?”

His eyes were green slits that conveyed both malevolence and amusement. A chilling combination.

“My men attacked you. We bombed it to destroy your computer and the files you downloaded.” He hesitated, then shrugged. “I forgot about the second damn com-unit.”

“So that’s why we were attacked at the hotel?”

He nodded. “I was hoping you’d panic and leave it behind. I should have known better.”

“What is in those files that you don’t want me to see?”

He smiled coldly. “That’s something you’ll never know, since I now have your bag and the com-unit.”

But she still had his wristcom and the backup files. Or did she? Had they found them at Karl’s? She forced a sweet smile. “But you don’t have your disks, do you?”

The vein tripped into triple time. “A point I was going to raise. Where are they, Samantha?”

He hadn’t found them, then. Good. “Where do you think?”

He cursed. “I thought you’d have more sense than to give them to the spook.”

“He was trying to help me, you know.”

Jack laughed harshly. “Stern is no more trying to help you than I am. He wants you for his own ends, and you’re a fool if you believe otherwise.”

Maybe. But right now, she knew which of the two men she trusted more—and that was something she’d never thought would happen only a few days ago. “What about the kite, then?”

He smiled. “Reflex test. No human can outrun those things, yet you did.”

“Maybe I’m just very fast when I’m scared.”

He raised an eyebrow and said nothing. She shifted, suddenly uncomfortable under his knowing gaze. She didn’t
want
to be anything else, didn’t want to be related to the very things she’d loathed for as long as she could remember.

“Where did those things come from?”

“The man from whom I would wrest control, of course.”

“Sethanon?”

“I really should have killed Stern when I had the chance. He has told you entirely too much.”

“So why didn’t you?”

“His death was certainly planned, but that abruptly changed the night he and you met.” Jack’s expression was perplexed. “Any idea why?”

She raised an eyebrow. “Why would
I
have any idea?”

He shrugged. “The boss rarely deigns to explain his orders, but I had a feeling Stern’s stay of execution had something to do with you.”

“I have no idea what that might be.” Sam studied
him for a moment, then said, “Does he have any idea that you’re using his creations for your own gain?”

He snorted. “Hardly. He trusts me.”

She’d trusted him, too. But she was a whole lot wiser now—and for some odd reason, she suspected Sethanon might be, too. “How do you know about me, about my past?”

“Because the boss told me.”

“And why the hell would he know or even care about me?”

“Because he fears what you might become.”

She raised an eyebrow. “Yeah, right. A would-be dictator with hordes of dark monsters at his command fears one lone cop who’s a few cogs short in the memory department? Nice try, Jack.”

His cold smile widened. “I was appointed your watchdog five years ago by Sethanon. Before me, there was Rachel, your blond neighbor for several years. Before that, I believe there was a boy named Raul. Brown hair, buck teeth. You went through training together.”

She stared at him. She’d never told him any of that. Had she lived in a fishbowl all her life, unaware, yet never alone? It was a frightening thought. She swallowed heavily.

“Then who’s trying to set me up for your murder? And why the clone?”

“Sethanon, again. It would seem some of your searches were getting a little too close to the truth for his liking. He wants you off the force and away from their computers. Having you ‘kill’ me was a method of ensuring that.”

All that would ensure was that she’d end up in prison. Though she guessed that
would
keep her well
away from the State’s computer system. “Why try and take the clone back, then? It was your men in the morgue, wasn’t it?”

“Yes. Reliable help is not readily available these days, I’m afraid.” He gave her a thin smile. “The clone was pumped with accelerant. Even after death, the accelerant keeps working. In a day or so it would have been very obvious it was not me.”

“But it wasn’t the clone I talked to in the warehouse. That was you.” She paused. “Were you the one who shot the clone in the leg?”

“Yes. I had to make you think it was me.”

And she had, even if she’d registered the oddities in the back of her mind. “And what about the other clones?”

He raised his eyebrows. “What other clones?”

“Wetherton, for a start.”

“And why would you think Wetherton is a clone?”

“Hard to think otherwise once I’d stumbled across his dead body.” The fact that it had been Gabriel who’d discovered Wetherton’s body was something Jack didn’t need to know. Unless, of course, he’d been involved in Wetherton’s death and Gabriel’s subsequent kidnapping.

He smiled his cold smile. “Which would explain why orders to get rid of Wetherton have come down from the top. I’m afraid he’s about to have a horrible car accident. There won’t be enough DNA left to investigate.”

“Why make someone like Wetherton a clone, anyway? He was on his way down the ranks, not up.”

“Because he’s still a government minister, and there are certain things only a government minister has access to.”

“Like what?”

He raised an eyebrow. “So full of questions today, aren’t you?”

And while he was answering them, she was going to keep on asking. “So where does Suzy fit into all this?”

His gaze narrowed. “She’s my wife.”

And
a shifter. She blinked. Was Suzy the shifter taking Lyssa’s place? It was more than possible, given the odd sense of familiarity she’d been getting from the woman. It also begged the question—whose child was she actually carrying? Jack’s, or Stephan’s?

She shifted her weight from one foot to the other. “Why is this Sethanon so interested in stopping my quest to find out who I am? And if he fears me so much, why not just kill me?”

Jack smiled. “Maybe those are questions you should ask him.”

She raised an eyebrow. “You don’t know, do you?”

He crossed his arms on the table and leaned forward. “You will help me, you know, and I don’t care if it’s willingly or unwillingly.”

She let her gaze drop to the paper in front of him, considering it for a minute. “Was I ever anything more than a job to you? Did you ever even consider me a friend?”

He returned her gaze and smiled. For just a moment, there was something more than a chill in his eyes. But that brief moment of sadness was gone almost as quickly as it had appeared. “You stand before me unchained and free of drugs. I’m giving you the choice to join me willingly. Friendship, Samantha, nothing else.”

She looked at her toes and blinked back the sudden sting of tears. He was rotten to the core, but he was
still her friend. Her only friend. Damn, she hated life sometimes.

“I can’t make the decision right now, Jack. I need time to think.” Time to plot an escape. She hesitated, looking at the paper again. How could she leave this room without knowing what was on it?

She couldn’t. With a sigh of defeat, she walked over and picked it up. Jack laughed softly, a sound full of victory. At that moment, she didn’t care.

The paper was a birth certificate.
Her
birth certificate, but not the one she’d seen—not the one State held. This one had four names on her father’s side, and four on her mother’s.

She frowned up at Jack. “This makes no sense. How can I have four of each parent?”

His expression was filled with gloating. “The answers, dear friend, will come when I have your answer. A simple yes or no is all I need.”

“I need time to think,” she repeated. She carefully folded the certificate and shoved it inside her pocket. Amusement flared in his eyes. He thought he had her. Thought he could reel her in as simply as that, which proved he didn’t know her as well as he thought he did.

“You have until tomorrow morning to make your decision. After that, I’m afraid I’ll have to try other methods.”

She had no desire to find out what those other methods were. She knew Jack too well. They wouldn’t be pleasant. The door behind her swished open.

“Take her back to the cells,” Jack said quietly. “Make sure she is fed tonight, and bring her back in the morning.”

Two men entered. She ignored them, her gaze still on Jack.

“Tomorrow we shall find out just how well developed your abilities are,” he said. “And I’d rather have you as a willing accomplice, Sam.”

She smiled, even though it felt as if something were breaking inside. She had no intention of being here tomorrow, and by escaping, she’d kill the one true friendship she’d had. A friendship that was nothing more than a lie.

“See you tomorrow morning, Jack.” Hopefully with a gun in her hand and the SIU at her back.

G
ABRIEL STORMED INTO
K
ARL
’
S HOME
.
Though Karl hadn’t answered the phone, he was home, sitting on the sofa in the dark. He raised his hands, as if in surrender.

“I had no choice,” he said, voice soft and cracked with pain.

Gabriel saw the tears in his eyes. It was that, more than anything else, that stopped his anger.

“They have Jan,” Karl continued.

Gabriel sighed and ran a hand through his hair. Then he slumped onto the sofa beside his friend. “Fucking hell. Why didn’t you tell me?”

Karl grimaced. “They were monitoring all my lines. They shot Jason’s dog and threatened to do the same to Jason if I tried to warn you in any way.”

Jason was Karl’s youngest—barely ten. The loss of his pet would certainly shatter the poor kid. “Then why not use a public phone? Or go to one of the neighbors?”