Memory Zero (39 page)

“I haven’t got the time. Besides, you may yet need it. Stopping the clone won’t be easy.” He glanced across the room. “Is that bomb safe yet?”

“Safe as houses,” the Fed said with a smile, and tossed it into the air.

“Then it’s time for me to go.”

“Try to make sure you come back alive,” Stephan said softly.

His smile was grim. “I can’t exactly come back dead, can I?” He squeezed his brother’s shoulder and headed for the stairs.

* * *

“
S
EE, EVERYTHING IS GOING ACCORDING
to plan,” Jack whispered, his breath brushing warmth past her ear.

Sam shuddered and blinked away the sweat rolling into her eyes. The elevator jerked to a halt, and the doors opened. A dozen armed State Police officers were waiting for them.

“One move, one wrong word, and they all die,” Jack murmured. “Eddie has another shiny toy in his pocket.”

“Then we’ll all die. Your precious clone included.”

Jack’s smile sent shivers through her soul. “See that man to the right? His name’s Barter. His wife has just had a little boy. Should we make her a widow right here and now?”

“You’re a bastard,” she muttered. He knew her too well. Knew she wouldn’t take the risk.

“And a good one at that.” He jerked her forward. “Barter, take the PM to the car and get him out of here. I’m taking Ryan to the medics.”

“The attackers?”

“Upstairs, but be careful. They’re well armed.”

Barter and several Feds whisked the clone away. The rest of security headed for the stairs. Jack and his remaining three men walked back into the shuttle port. They were stopped several times, and each time they were allowed to move on. They had the right uniforms and the right ID. No one bothered to look any closer.

She tried to study where they were going, but he was pushing her so fast she was almost running. Everything
was blurred—or was it her eyes? It very quickly became obvious they were not headed for the medical center, but rather outside. A clock chimed into the silence. Four o’clock.

Time to move. She clenched her fingers round the laser in her pocket. Jack pushed her on. They approached the shuttle port’s main entrance. The doors slid open. Outside, there was little activity. The shuttle port had been closed down tight—a fact that was now working in Jack’s favor. He marched her through the doors, then stopped, cursing fluently.

“Where the hell is Suzy?”

“Maybe she developed some sense and ran like mad,” she muttered.

Jack growled and threw her against the wall. “You stay! Eddie, go get us some transportation.”

She slid down the wall, battling for breath as a red haze danced before her eyes. Overhead, she saw a brown hawk wheel and dive for the rooftop. It landed awkwardly, as if it were injured.

Relief coursed through her. Gabriel. It had to be. She slipped her hand from her pocket. Her fingers were still wrapped around the laser, concealing it. Timing was everything, Jack had once told her. She waited patiently, watching him pace, her shoulder almost as numb as her mind.

A red Ford sedan roared up. Eddie climbed out.
Time
, a warm voice whispered into her mind. Gabriel, she thought again, and wondered whether his voice was real or simply her imagination.

She raised the laser and fired at the car, splitting it open from front to back. Doing the same to Eddie. At the same time, two more red-blue flashes lit the air,
and Jack’s other men were little more than headless corpses lying prone on the concrete.

“What the fuck?” Panic filled Jack’s voice as he swung around. His gaze widened as it settled on the weapon in her hand. “Where the hell did that come from?”

“Magic,” she said softly. “Hands up, Jack.”

He slowly raised his hands. But however much his human half might fear her, his vampire half still had control. It was evident in the calculating coldness of his eyes. “It’s against the law to kill me. You know the rules. You’ve lived with them all your life, and you can’t abandon them now.”

She smiled sadly. She
had
lived within the rules all her life. She might not have always followed orders, but she had stayed within the letter of the law, even when Jack had tried to convince her to do otherwise.

Look what it had gained her—a phony friendship, a shattered apartment and goddamn loneliness.

“What was that phrase you always used to say?”

A frown flitted across his features. She saw him tense, knew he was ready to leap.

“Oh yeah,” she said softly. “Fuck the damn rules.” He sprang. She fired. Once. Twice. The laser caught him in the head and the chest and disintegrated both. She closed her eyes and heard the soft thump as his remains hit the concrete. She had her ending. It was over.

So why did she feel so empty, so cold?

She dropped the laser, closed her eyes and let her head rest against the wall. After several seconds, she heard the soft flutter of wings, then hesitant footsteps.

Gabriel, she knew, without looking. She could smell
his aftershave, a warm, woody scent that tingled through her nostrils. She could somehow feel him in her mind, a wall of heat she could see but not yet touch.

His arms went around her, pulling her into the warmth of his embrace. She bit her lip, then buried her face against his shoulder and let the tears flow.

“
W
HAT DO YOU MEAN
, ‘
SUSPENDED
until further notice’?” Sam stared at the captain, a weird sense of déjà vu running through her. Though it was an entirely different office in which the two of them now sat, the events seemed to be rolling out just the same.

He sighed heavily. “It means that, until further notice, you’re suspended from active service with the State Police.”

“Did some form of evidence come to light when I was in the hospital?”

“No. You’re cleared of all charges relating to the death of Detective Jack Kazdan.”

The clone’s rapidly disintegrating body, and the subsequent discovery of the massive doses of growth accelerant in his body, had corroborated her statement that it wasn’t the real Jack she’d shot that first time. And Gabriel had testified that when she’d shot him the second time, it was in self-defense.

Granted, she shouldn’t have killed him the second time, either, if only because they might have been able
to coerce information about Sethanon out of him. But, as Gabriel had pointed out, if she hadn’t shot him,
he
would have been forced to, if only to save her life. Besides, if this Sethanon was the force of evil everyone was saying, would he leave a general alive to shoot his mouth off? Unlikely.

“Then why am I being suspended?”

The captain rubbed his forehead wearily. “Look, I’m just the middleman around here. I do what I’m told. And right now, my orders are to get your skinny ass down to the SIU.”

She blinked in surprise. “The SIU? What the hell do they want to see me for?” Gabriel had promised no more tests. Surely he wouldn’t go back on his word …

But then, Gabriel didn’t run the SIU. Byrne did. Stephan had arranged a smooth takeover for Hanrahan’s successor, and the transition had gone as planned. As Byrne, Stephan still ran the SIU, and his alter ego still ran the Federation.

“Maybe they want to give you a commendation for your help in rescuing the PM.”

The captain’s dry tone told her it was highly unlikely. “Come on, Cap, you must have heard something.”

He smiled, brown eyes amused. “As I said, I’m just a middleman. Go. The SIU do not like to be kept waiting.”

“Yeah, so you said the last time.” She rose, knowing she would get nothing more from him. “See you around, Cap.”

“I doubt it,” he said, and went back to his paperwork.

Dismissed yet again. She walked out of his office and past the office she and Jack had shared, not even bothering to stop. There was nothing left for her in
there. Nothing more than memories she no longer trusted.

She pressed the elevator button and impatiently tapped her foot. After several seconds the door opened. She swiped her pass through it and pressed the button for the SIU. The doors closed, and the elevator whisked her downward.

Gabriel was waiting in the foyer. He’d come to visit her in the hospital, but she hadn’t seen him since she’d gotten out, just over a week ago.

“What the hell is going on?” she said.

“Your guess is as good as mine.”

He made little effort to conceal his annoyance, and she raised her eyebrows in surprise. “I thought assistant directors were told what was going on.”

“Not this one—not on this occasion, anyway.”

He led her down a long corridor and past several well-secured entrances. The furniture became plush and rich in color, contrasting oddly against the harsh white walls. They were in the director’s suite, she realized.

Gabriel approached a desk and stopped. The blonde behind it looked up and smiled. “Assistant Director Stern, the director is expecting you. Please, go on in.”

He glanced at Sam. There was wariness in his gaze, tension in the set of his shoulders. He obviously knew his twin was up to something, but he wasn’t sure what.

“Ladies first,” he said, ushering her through the open doorway.

“Gee, thanks,” she muttered, feeling like a lamb about to enter the hungry lion’s den.

Jonathan Byrne looked up as they entered. The impact of his gaze stopped her so suddenly Gabriel had
to do a quick step around her. In the intense depths of Byrne’s blue eyes, well beneath the sharp amusement, there was a calculating iciness that boded ill. But she sensed that Gabriel, more than she, wasn’t going to like whatever it was his twin had to say.

The door slammed shut behind them, and a faint buzzing ran across the silence. Voice scramblers, she thought, surprised.

“What the hell are you up to?” Gabriel stalked to the desk and stared at his brother. His voice held no respect. No wonder Byrne had the scramblers up.

“I told you a while ago that I wanted you to have a partner—that these missions of ours, both here and with the Federation, were far too dangerous to continue with alone.” Byrne’s gaze went from Gabriel to her, then back again, and a smile touched his thin lips. “And now, I believe, I have found you the perfect partner.”

“I work alone. I always have, and always will.” Gabriel hesitated and glanced around at her. “No offense.”

“None taken.” Sam stepped up beside him. “I have absolutely no desire to join the ranks of the spook squad, so you can transfer me right back upstairs.”

“Gabriel, you have no choice. And you didn’t volunteer, my dear; you were drafted. We will begin your training straight away.”

“No you won’t, because I’ll quit if you don’t transfer me back.”

“We both know that’ll never happen, because you have no life beyond your job, so let’s not pretend.”

Damned if he wasn’t right. She was stuck, and they both knew it. And in some ways, being here was better than being up in State. She might have been cleared
of Jack’s murder, but people hadn’t forgiven her. Whether or not she was in the right, she’d still shot the man she’d thought was her partner. She’d stepped over that line, and there was no going back now.

Byrne leaned forward, crossing his arms on the desk. “You worked so well together. I saw it, Gabriel—at the house and at the shuttle port. There’s an instant understanding between you, something rare and precious. Sam obviously has talents that are still developing, and she will need monitoring, while you, my brother, have talents you refuse to explore. Together, I think you will make quite a lethal combination.”

They stared at him in silence. There was little else they could do.

He smiled again. “I’ll take your silence as acceptance. Now, get the hell out of my office and go do some work.”

Gabriel glanced down at her, his hazel eyes as cold as the Antarctic, then turned and walked from the room. She had no choice but to follow. She’d lost one job and gained another—and a new partner in the process. Some days, you just couldn’t win.

“This is great,” Gabriel muttered as he strode along the hall. He ran a hand through his hair and glanced back at her. “Nothing personal, of course. I just prefer working alone.”

“Which is not a current option.”

“There’s always another option,” he shot back, “and always a way around orders.”

“He won’t send me back upstairs. You heard him say that.”

“And
I
won’t work with a partner.” His gaze was almost challenging, as though she were somehow a threat to him.

She raised an eyebrow and wondered what the hell she was missing. “It’s not like either of us has much of a choice. Why not accept it gracefully and just get on with whatever it is we’re supposed to do?”

“What I’m supposed to do now is take you downstairs and register you for training, which I will. But nothing more. You and I will never work together.”

“Why not? I mean, we did work well together, didn’t we?”

He didn’t even bother glancing at her. “Yes, but that doesn’t alter my decision.”

He strode off. She had no choice but to follow. “What the hell have you got against having a partner?”