Memory Zero (38 page)

As if to confirm his claim, a voice broke into the brief silence. “Flint’s just left the security center. Heads up, everyone. Kazdan’s around somewhere.”

The voice, she realized, was Gabriel’s, and it was coming from both her wristcom, which was sitting on the sat-link desk next to her gun, and Jack’s.

“Indeed he is,” Jack said, pushing away from the radar terminal. “Two minutes, boys.”

The two men near the door raised their weapons. They were more robots than men, she thought.

The wristcom buzzed again. “Redfern, you there?”

Jack smiled as he glanced at Sam. “Indeed I am,” he said, voice several shades deeper than normal.

“Flint’s on his way. I’m heading up the stairs.”

She opened her mouth to scream a warning and
found the gleaming barrel of a pistol laser staring her right between the eyes.

“One word and you die. I swear it,” Jack said.

She had no doubt that he meant it. There was something very cold, something less than human, in his eyes. The vampire half of his nature was beginning to override his human sensibilities.

He kept the laser cocked and ready. Sweat trickled down her nose as she stared at the stairway door. The heavy sound of footsteps became clearer. Then the door was flung open, and Gabriel stepped into the room.

To be greeted by two rifles and a smiling Jack.

Gabriel ignored them, his gaze searching the room. Relief ran through his eyes when he saw her. She realized that he’d known about the trap and had willingly walked into it to see if she was safe.

Warmth ran through her, momentarily wiping away her pain.

“And the whole family’s together again,” Jack said sardonically. “Stern, release the weapon and wristcom.”

Gabriel dangled the laser on one finger and allowed the man on his left to take the wristcom. “Nice disguise, Kazdan. Wouldn’t have known you.”

“Obviously not. But here I am, and you’re my prisoner. Check him.”

Gabriel kept his arms raised as one of the men patted down his sides and legs.

“Nothing.”

Jack pointed his weapon toward her. “Sit next to our bleeder, Stern, and don’t try to warn anyone. Mike, watch them.”

Jack walked to the elevator, followed by the two men who’d been stationed near the door. Gabriel sat down beside Sam, close enough that their shoulders
brushed. His gaze was both calculating and concerned when it met hers. “How’s the shoulder?”

“Sore.”

“You’ve lost a little blood.”

He was making small talk, she realized, probably trying to put their guard at ease. If he’d willingly walked into a trap, he obviously had a plan to get them out. She hoped. “But a hell of a lot less than the tower folk.”

His gaze went to the pile of bodies. His fingers clenched and unclenched. “We’ve got a hungry vampire in our midst.”

“So it would seem.”

He nudged her, catching her attention again. He looked over his shoulder, down toward his back, then back to her. She nodded minutely.

Keeping a careful eye on both Jack and their guard, she slipped her hand behind his back, stopping only when the guard glanced at her. She feigned interest in what Jack was doing. A soft hum came from the elevator shaft; Flint was on his way up. The guard looked away.

Wriggling her fingers under Gabriel’s shirt, she slipped her palm across the smooth warmth of his skin until she touched something cold and metallic.

Her gaze met his, and his smile was grim. Slowly, carefully, she pulled the duct tape away and slid the parcel down to the floor. Holcroft lasers, loosely joined by tape.

His hand joined hers behind his back. His fingers ran warmth across her skin, briefly caressing, leaving her fingers tingling as he grasped one of the lasers. His gaze met hers and then flickered to the guard. She wrapped her hand around the second laser and carefully pulled. The tape tore loose, and she coughed to
cover the sound. But the cough became a groan of pain as fire burned down her right side. For an instant, the whole room spun. She leaned her head back against the panel and took several deep breaths.

Gabriel’s hand touched hers again. She released the laser, wrapping her fingers in his, drawing strength from the comfort of his touch. It was odd, really, that a man she barely knew could offer her such solace. Especially when she’d never found
that
sort of comfort in a man’s touch.

When the pain began to ebb again, she squeezed his hand lightly and let go. “I’m okay,” she said, opening her eyes.

His hazel eyes were full of concern. “You need a doctor.”

“I need an ending.”

Understanding flickered through his eyes. “Wait,” he said softly, holding up four fingers.

“We wait and the PM dies.”

“No.” There was certainty in his voice.

She glanced at the clock. Six minutes to four. She clenched the Holcroft laser and waited. A minute later, an explosion ripped across the silence.

“About time,” Jack muttered. “Battle stations, boys.”

The wristcoms buzzed to life. “Stern, Redfern, there’s been an explosion in the kitchen. Batten down the tower and keep the PM under wraps until we give the okay.”

Jack picked up the wristcom. “Bringing up the second launch screen.”

He pressed a button. Motors hummed and a metal screen began to ease upward, covering the windows. Light flared overhead as the room became darker.

“Let the game begin.” Jack’s voice was flat and cold. “Positions, boys.”

The two men stepped back, weapons raised and ready. Jack stood in the middle of the room, facing the elevator, gun armed and held by his side.

“Your plan won’t work,” Gabriel said into the silence. “No bomb ever destroys all the evidence. They’ll run autopsies on the remains, cell tests. They’ll discover the truth.”

Despite the casualness of his voice, Sam sensed an underlying urgency in his words. He didn’t want the PM shot any more than she did, so why was he talking rather than acting?

Jack’s smile was almost bitter. “I’m not a fool, Stern. There won’t be anything left for them to autopsy.”

“All it’ll take is one piece of skull showing a laser burn, and your plan will come undone.”

“Tell me, Stern, have they found any pieces of Hanrahan for you to identify? No? How tragic.” Jack’s voice was cold, mocking. “The bomb we’re using is bigger than the car bomb that destroyed the SIU. Even so, we’re not taking chances. They won’t find any skull fragments bearing laser burns, believe me.”

Sam raised an eyebrow. The car bomb hadn’t destroyed the SIU—even she knew that. Had Jack failed to keep updated on current events? Would that help them, somehow? She glanced at Gabriel. His eyes were calm, despite the tension and anger she felt in him.

“We have to stop them,” she said.

“Move and you both die,” Jack said, not looking at them.

They were going to die anyway, so why not die trying to stop a fiend? As if reading her thoughts, Gabriel squeezed her hand.
Patience
, his eyes seemed to say.
She frowned and bit her lip. The elevator chimed, and the doors slid open. Five men were inside. The PM, David Flint, stood at the rear of the elevator, his body shielded by the four Fed boys.

She clenched the laser. They were dead meat if someone didn’t
do
something. Gabriel wrapped his fingers around her arm, holding her hand down and preventing her from moving. She glared at him.

“Wait,” he repeated. “Just wait.”

“Welcome, Prime Minister,” Jack said, then raised his gun and fired.

The men in the lift didn’t have a chance. Blood sprayed against the elevator walls as the five of them went down.

“Mike,” Jack said, then turned and fired at the guard near them. The bullet took him in the shoulder and flung him back. He fell to the floor. Jack rounded his gun immediately on Sam and Gabriel. “Don’t even think about moving.”

She stared at him. “Have you gone totally mad?”

Jack snorted softly. “Far from it. Mike, you okay?”

The big man made a series of low curses as he pulled himself off the floor.

“I’ll take that as a yes.” Jack walked over and picked up a wristcom. “Control, Redfern here. We’re under attack. I repeat, we’re under attack. Flint’s been hit. Stairs are occupied. We’re taking the elevator.”

“Sending teams one and five to help.”

Jack smiled and clicked off the wristcom. “Transformation time, Mike.”

The big man raised his fingers to his face and slowly dug in. With an odd sucking sound, his mouth, nose, everything, began to peel away. David Flint lay underneath the mask.

“A clone,” she murmured.

“A clone,” Jack said, tone smug. “Eddie, time for your magic.”

The skinny man near the elevator door pulled a small box from his pocket and walked to the control panel. Jack squatted down next to her. Slowly, carefully, she eased the laser into her pocket. Gabriel’s was long gone—she hadn’t even seen him move it.

“Time to get out of here, my friend,” Jack said.

“Thanks, but I think I’d rather remain here with the dead.”

“Sorry, that wish has already been granted to Stern.”

He grabbed her shoulder, callously digging his fingers into her wound. Through a haze of pain, she heard Gabriel swear. Almost in slow motion, she saw Jack raise his gun, saw the flash as the bullet was fired. She felt Gabriel’s shudder as if it were her own. Screamed when his blood splashed across her face.

Jack laughed. Then fire leapt into her skull, and for an instant, everything went black.

“Bastard,” she heard Gabriel mutter, voice taut with pain.

He was alive. Relief swam through her, dissolving some of the pain. Shuddering, she took a deep breath, trying to control the churning in her stomach. Then she opened her eyes.

Gabriel’s face was white, his forehead beaded with sweat. His hands were clenched around his thigh, and blood seeped slowly between his fingers.

The best way to stop a shapechanger was to wing him with silver, Jack had once told her. Then they were useless in either form.

“I’ve decided I don’t need the disks enough to cart you around with me, Stern. You’re a little too dangerous
to warrant the effort.” There was no humanity left in Jack’s eyes now. The vampire had risen fully to the surface. “I’d love to stay and watch you bleed to death, but time is against me. Up, Sam.”

He pulled her roughly to her feet. “Terry, get those bodies out of the elevator. Eddie, you ready?”

Acid burned up Sam’s throat. Sweat trickled down her forehead, dripping into her eyes, stinging. She blinked and met Gabriel’s gaze. His eyes were intense, full of anger, and yet she sensed that even now, he was holding himself in check, waiting. For what? His gaze went to the clock, then back to her. Frowning, she looked at the clock. One minute to four. It would take less than a minute to go down in the elevator. He’d asked her to wait until four before she moved. He was asking her to hold back again.

Against all reason, something deep within her trusted Gabriel. For the moment, she’d do as he asked.

Jack jerked her forward. Pain leapt like fire through her muscles, making her knees go weak. She staggered a little, trying to keep her balance.

“You’re dead meat, Kazdan.” Gabriel’s voice was flat, holding no emotion, no anger, and was all the more frightening because of it.

Jack laughed harshly. “No. You’re the meat. See that bomb? It’s primed and counting down. You have less than two minutes to say your prayers.”

Jack thrust her into the lift. She hit the wall and slid down, struggling to breathe as the bright lights danced before her eyes.

But her gaze caught Gabriel’s as the elevator doors closed, and she knew she was not alone. Somehow, he would come after her.

* * *

T
HE DOORS WERE BARELY CLOSED
when the dead came to life. The four Feds rose, three moving across to the stairwell door and the fourth to the bomb. Flint rolled to one side, his shape shifting, re-forming, as he moved. Stephan, in his Byrne identity, got to his feet.

“I thought he was going to shoot your fucking head off,” Stephan said as he knelt beside Gabriel and dug a medi-kit out of his pocket. “You don’t know how close I came to shooting the bastard right there and then.”

“Glad you didn’t,” Gabriel said between clenched teeth. “Sethanon will be around here somewhere. We might just catch him if we let this whole thing play out.”

Stephan’s blue gaze was dubious. “And he might just let Kazdan kill Sam.”

He shook his head. “Kazdan needs her.”

“You’d better hope so.” Stephan tore the dressing open and placed it on the lid, ready to use. Then he dug the knife out of the kit and glanced up. “This will hurt.”

“Having a bullet stuck in my leg is not exactly pleasant either, believe me.” Why the fucker hadn’t blasted right through, given the close range, was beyond him. Maybe his shapechanging bones were tougher than he thought. “As the ad says, just do it.”

Stephan nodded. Gabriel moved his hands from his leg. Blood pulsed from the wound and ran freely down his thigh. Stephan cursed and slashed Gabriel’s trousers open. Then he did the same to Gabriel’s leg.

Gabriel hissed as the knife plunged into his flesh,
gritting his teeth against the bellow that tore up his throat. Sweat beaded his brow and ran down his back, and yet his skin suddenly felt as cold as the arctic.

He slammed his head back and closed his eyes, trying to think of something, anything, other than the feel of the blade digging into his flesh. He saw Sam’s eyes, and the trust so evident in their shadow-ringed blue depths.

He couldn’t let her down.

“Got it,” Stephan muttered, and then, mercifully, the digging stopped. Something metallic clattered across the tiles.

He opened his eyes. With the silver bullet out of his leg, he could at least shapechange and go after Kazdan. Stephan sprayed on an antiseptic sealer, slapped on the dressing and quickly bandaged the wound.

“This isn’t going to hold for long if you insist on running around on it.”

He ignored the concern in his brother’s eyes. “Help me up.”

Stephan grabbed his arm and held him steady as he clambered upright. “At least wear one of the vests. It saved our lives. It might save yours.”