Dark Abyss (7 page)

Luckily, Anna had almost finished eating when Simon arrived at the table, heavy-eyed, wearing a distinct ‘five o’clock’ shadow, and with his hair still tousled from sleep.

It took an effort to peel her eyes off of him.

Maybe she’d been just a little hasty in deciding he had no appeal at all?

“Is there any coffee?”

His husky voice sent a shiver down her spine.

“I put it on. It should be ready.”

He got up and left the table, heading for a cabinet near the sink. He hadn’t bothered to put any clothes on—not even a robe!

God! He had a nice ass!

She whipped her head around when she saw him start to turn toward the table and discovered Caleb and Joshua were both watching her. Feeling her face heat, she got up abruptly. “I think I’ll have some coffee, too, if it’s alright?”

Not that she wanted coffee, but it was the only thing she could think of to cover the fact that she’d been staring at Simon’s ass. She’d grabbed a cup and was reaching for the pot when it abruptly occurred to her that it was doubtful they had cream. “I don’t suppose you have cream?”

Caleb stared at her blankly.

“No cream,” Joshua said sardonically. “It’s a major bitch trying to milk fish.”

Anna glared at him. “I think I’ll just have water.”

“The water’s rationed,” Simon growled. “The terrorists blew up the desalination plant.”

Anna’s lips tightened. “Caleb made coffee! What did he do, piss in the pot?”

Simon strangled on his coffee.

Caleb uttered a choked laugh and then apparently thought better of it when Simon glared at him. He cleared his throat. “Everybody’s allowed four a day. I used the morning ration to make coffee.”

Anna poured herself a cup and settled at the table again, glaring at the dark liquid.

She didn’t want coffee, damn it! She didn’t even like coffee with cream. It just made it more bearable.

She drank it, though, every drop and then took her plate and cup to the sink and went back to her ‘dungeon’ to sulk. Uneasiness crept in after a while when she’d listened to men moving around the house. She could hear their voices although she couldn’t make out what they were saying and wondered if the conversation pertained to her.

Surely they wouldn’t keep her long? If they’d checked her out, wouldn’t they know she hadn’t had any dealings with Miles Cavendish before?

But how could they, she realized uneasily. The connection they’d found was a public record.
She
could’ve found it if it had ever occurred to her to research it.

Except her mother had given a false name for her father on her birth certificate … or, at least she had on the birth certificate she’d given her. Was it fake? If it wasn’t, she realized, they wouldn’t have found it and known Miles Cavendish was her father.

Just how many lies had her mother told her, she wondered?

She shook that thought off. She wasn’t going to start doubting her mother. She knew everything she’d done had been intended to protect both of them, not to deceive her. It still distressed her that her mother never had told her the truth, but who was to say she wouldn’t have, eventually, if she hadn’t died?

That thought resurrected a memory and gave rise to some very unpleasant speculation. Miles Cavendish hadn’t seemed to be the least surprised that her mother was dead, which meant he’d known when he asked her. She didn’t suppose she could or even should read anything else into it beyond deception, though why he’d pretended he didn’t know everything about her when he’d clearly already decided to tell her about himself was a mystery.

What bothered her was the perception at the time that he was almost pleased at the news. She hadn’t known then, and she certainly didn’t know now, why she’d gotten that impression, but she realized it probably wasn’t a false one.

Either he’d been pleased because he still held a grudge against her mother for running off.

Or he was pleased because he’d finally tracked her down and gotten his revenge.

The thought made her cold. She tried to dismiss it. She wanted to, but once the thought occurred to her she couldn’t banish it.

* * * *

Simon wasn’t particularly happy when they settled down to compare notes over their interrogation and it was born in upon him that Anna was either the best liar he’d ever come across, or she was telling the truth.

It was more than the frustration in discovering they’d run into another dead end.

They had no valid reason for keeping her unless they did decide to use her to bait a trap, and that didn’t appeal to him any more than it had to begin with.

“What next?” Ian asked.

Simon shook his head, scrubbing his hands over his face tiredly. He hadn’t had more than a few hours sleep, in snatches, since the attack. He had the uneasy feeling that it was beginning to affect his judgment. “Where do we stand on the background checks?” he asked after a moment.

“We’ve put three men on the watch list,” Caleb responded.

Simon sat up straighter. “When?”

“As of this morning.”

“Have they been brought in for questioning?”

“We have them under surveillance right now,” Joshua responded. “We decided to run it by you before we picked them up. We don’t actually have anything on them we could charge them with—just suspicions.”

“What have you got?”

“Steve Roach—served time for petty theft in the same prison Trey Carter was in.

He arrived in Atlantis about six months before Trey Carter. Works at the power station—shift supervisor.

“Billy Moyer—no criminal record. He arrived in the same group as Trey Carter and petitioned for genetic reversal the day after the attack. We actually haven’t been able to locate him.

“The third is Moi Spencer. He colonized eight months before Steve Roach.”

Simon frowned. “Why does that name sound familiar?”

“He’s the newest member on the territorial council,” Ian said grimly.

“You’ve found a connection between him and the other two?” Simon asked sharply.

“We found a connection between him and Humans for Humanity. Before he came here, he was the CEO of M.C.C., Inc, a small telecommunications company that was located in California before the quake of ‘75. By ’76 they were up and running again in Denver, so we did a little digging to see how they recovered so quickly and discovered it was a subsidiary of TelCom, who turned out to be a subsidiary of Media Group, Inc., who was a subsidiary of M.T. Com …and on through two more Incs, and LLCs until we arrived at Martin Communications. The CEO of Martin Communications, Don Spencer, is a very active and visible member of Humans for Humanity. He also happens to be Moi Spencer’s uncle.”

“Shell game,” Simon muttered in disgust. “And nobody made that connection before? Didn’t he have to disclose before he ran for the council seat?”

Caleb shrugged. “He openly claimed his connection to M.C.C., used it as a point of experience. On paper, he looks squeaky—except for his divorce, which should have sent up flags but didn’t. He left his wife of fifteen years and three children when he colonized.”

Simon sat back, tipping his head back against the cushions and staring at the ceiling while he tried to fit the puzzle pieces together. It would’ve been easier, he thought wryly, if random thoughts of Anna hadn’t kept creeping in. She was a distraction he couldn’t afford, particularly when it seemed clear that she wasn’t going to lead them anywhere.

He lifted his head and sat up. “Joshua, arrange transport for Dr. Blake. I’m going to cut her loose.”

Ian cocked a dark brow at him. “Just like that?”

“Just like that,” Simon said grimly.

“I thought we were going to get descriptions from her?” Joshua objected.

“We don’t need to detain her to do that. She might not feel like being helpful, as far as that goes, all things considered. Caleb can pump her. He was busy playing good cop on the way here,” he said dryly.

“I wouldn’t mind pumping her,” Caleb muttered under his breath.

Simon caught it and glared at him. “For information,” he said tightly. “She’s still a person of interest so watch yourself!”

It was obvious when he’d tapped on the door and stuck his head in the room that Anna had been sleeping. He hesitated, but when she opened her eyes and looked at him, he entered the room.

Anna groaned. “You’ve already asked me everything a hundred times,” she complained.

Simon stopped halfway between the door and the bed. “I just came to tell you we’re cutting you loose. Joshua will arrange transport. On behalf of the Atlantis Watchmen, I’d like to apologize for any inconvenience or discomfort our investigation may have caused you,” he said stiltedly.

Anna blinked at him. “You’re letting me go?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Irritation flickered through her. It might be considered a courtesy to refer to her as ma’am, but it felt a hell of a lot more like a cold dismissal. They’d dragged her from her home in the middle of the night, in her nightgown, nearly drowned her, scared her half to death, and then grilled her almost non-stop for two days and that was all? ‘We’re cutting you loose, ma’am’? ‘Sorry for the inconvenience’?

“That’s it?” she demanded in dawning anger.

“Yes, ma’am.” He hesitated. “Unless you’d like to help further the investigation by giving us a description of Miles Cavendish and anyone else you might remember from the party.”

She gave him a stony look. “I’m not sure how helpful I could be. My memory of it isn’t very clear after two days of interrogations and almost no damned sleep! To say nothing of having the pure piss scared out of me by having four men invade my house in the middle of the night and haul me off without even bothering to tell me they were cops!”

“That’s what I thought,” he said grimly. “
You are your
father’s
daughter.”

Anna narrowed her eyes at him. “And you, of course, aren’t a bigot for judging me by something I had no control of, but
I’m
a bigot because I think it would be better for everybody to focus on feeding people rather than tampering with their DNA!”

“Nobody’s judging you!” Simon growled.

“Like hell!” Anna snapped. “I’m sitting here, aren’t I?”

Simon ground his teeth. “It was a lead we had to follow.”

“Now I’m a lead? I’m not even a person?”

“I didn’t come in here to argue with you!” Simon snarled.

“Why
did
you come? Why didn’t you send one of the others?”

“Because
I’m
High Guardian. It was my orders to take you, and it’s my job to explain and apologize!” he growled.

“Well! You did that! And with such charm I feel better already!” Anna snapped sarcastically. “When do I leave?”

“Not soon enough to suit me,” Simon muttered, turning on his heel and stalking toward the door.

Spying a book on the table by the bed, Anna snatched it up and threw it at the door as Simon slammed it behind him.

“That’s considered assaulting an officer of the law!” he growled from the corridor.

“So arrest me and beat me up with your nightstick, asshole! You’ve already terrorized me, and manhandled me, and locked me up, and drilled me for hours and hours, and
breathed
for me!” She cringed when she realized that she’d accused him of drilling her. “I meant grilled!”

“I’m going to be really pissed off if you broke my book!”

Her shoulders slumped when she heard him stomp off down the hall. The urge to cry came out of nowhere. She sniffed, blinking at the stinging in her eyes, wondering why she felt so … thrown away … so afraid.

It occurred to her with a force that dried up the urge to cry that she was afraid.

She wasn’t relieved to discover they were going to haul her back to her place and dump her.

Because Miles Cavendish had found her and she wasn’t nearly as convinced as they seemed to be that he’d given up on her and left for good. What if he came back for her? What if he sent someone to collect her?

Beyond that, how was she going to live? Carry on her research? Her home, her research garden and everything in it belonged to Miles Cavendish! He owned her! She wasn’t even sure it would be safe to try to get another research grant. She hadn’t known he was behind the one she’d gotten! How could she ever be sure he wasn’t behind anything else she happened to get? Keeping tabs on her, having her constantly watched, maybe
demanding
that she become a part of his organization?

That was why her mother had run as far and as fast as she could, to keep from being tied to a man who thought killing was an answer, and she’d run until she had gone to college. Her mother had desperately wanted that for her, and she’d known she would never earn a degree if she was yanked out of college and moved every six months or so.

She didn’t know her father had had anything to do with her mother’s death. The police had never solved her murder. But it wasn’t beyond the realms of possibility, whether it was likely or not. Miles thought nothing of killing people he didn’t even know! How much more motive would he have for killing someone who’d crossed him?

Her mother had to have known
something
or she wouldn’t have run to start with.

And what about her? Why had he suddenly decided to reveal himself? Had he leapt to the same conclusion that Simon had? Read her papers and decided she saw things the same way he did?

As far as she knew, she was his only child. Had he decided it was time to start grooming her to take over?

That seemed just too farfetched. If he’d been having her watched, he had to know that she didn’t have it in her
to run anything, certainly not an organization like his. But what other reason might he have?

Not love, certainly.

She was never going to feel safe again, not while he lived! Not when he could pop into her life at any moment and turn it upside down!

That’s why she was so angry with Simon. She felt like he was throwing her to the wolves!

That was most of it, anyway. As soon as she realized that much, she also realized that, in spite of everything, she was deeply attracted to him. It was deflating to be so summarily dismissed when she couldn’t help but nurse the faint hope that he might actually notice her as a woman.

She’d never actually mastered the art of flirtation. She wasn’t very good at interacting with people even of her own gender. She’d given up even trying after a while. It had seemed pointless and, in any event, it had been a tremendous struggle for her mother to pay her way through college. It placed an equally heavy burden on her to do her best. She hadn’t felt right to spare a lot of time for anything as frivolous as socializing instead of studying.

She’d still managed to land a boyfriend in college—a gorgeous jock, who she found out was a player just about the time she fell hard for him. She’d never really understood how she’d caught his attention, though, beyond making a fool out of herself and staring at him with zen-like meditation every time she spotted him. Was it the clear signs of hero-worship that had emboldened him even though she ran like a turkey time he glanced her way? Or was it that he discovered she was the only virgin on campus that he hadn’t nailed?

She didn’t suppose it mattered. She couldn’t think of anything in her previous ‘experience’ that was likely to be helpful. She hadn’t done anything beyond finally getting up the spine to stand her ground when he approached her.
He
had done all the flirting—seduced her—not that he’d had to work too terribly hard! She wasn’t saving her virginity. She just hadn’t managed to find anybody that wanted it!

Her lovelorn situation was the least of her worries at the moment, anyway. It didn’t matter how attracted she was to Simon, or any of the others for that matter. It wasn’t doable even if it wasn’t for the situation she’d found herself in. They were mutants. She wasn’t. There was no future for an air-breather and a merman!

It was far worse that she was looking at her life’s work crumbling to dust, with no idea of when or even if she would ever be able to take it up again.

Was there any way, she wondered, that she could convince them not to pitch her out to sink or swim?

Simon seemed damned eager to get rid of her, and she had the bad feeling that whatever he decided was decided for all of them, privately as well as professionally.

She’d tended to think of Caleb almost as if he was Sir Galahad because he’d seemed sympathetic and understanding from the beginning, almost protective, but she thought it was probable that he’d only been playing ‘good cop’.

It was a crying damned shame she was such a dumbass that she’d picked a fight with Simon instead of saying something clever and suggestive, such as ‘Are you going to breathe for me on the way back?’. She honestly couldn’t picture herself carrying anything like that off, though. And it probably would’ve scared the piss out of her if he’d taken her up on it, if it came to that.

He was a scary man. There must be something wrong with her to want to play with fire! He was out of her league on too many levels to count.

She still hadn’t managed to banish her disappointment when Caleb and Joshua arrived to collect her, but their appearance brought her fears to a head. Her stomach cramped and she couldn’t blame it entirely on her anxiety about climbing into a coffin equipped with a propeller.