Dark Angel: Skin Game (31 page)

What the fuck office was that detective running for, all of a sudden? God, how White hated that pompous petty nonentity. He picked up the remote and fired it at the picture tube. A minute later he was riding away from the suburban house, leaving the lie of that life behind as quickly as possible, and heading into a precarious future.

On televisions across the city the Streaming Freedom

Video logo returned and that familiar, strangely soothing voice said, "One man's hatred, one man's fear of things different ... sometimes that's all that's needed to tip the scales of justice, until they are criminally off-kilter. We hope that those who make decisions are listening. We hope that— unlike Ames White—they will not turn a deaf ear to the cries of those who are different. There is time to stop this madness, this hatred. This has been a Streaming Freedom Video."

At the end of the broadcast, Max ushered everyone— except Joshua, who was still tending to Bobby—out into the kitchen apartment. No one spoke; a quiet had settled, like ground fog, and they all huddled within it, wondering if their efforts had been for nought.

Max stood, hugging her arms to herself, Logan nearby, his face unreadable. Alec and the three lawmen sat at the table, where Original Cindy remained, apparently still freaked out from the human-skin garment she'd helped retrieve. Sketchy bounced on the periphery, the only one in a good mood; he seemed to be relishing the role of real reporter....

Finally, Clemente's cell phone rang, and he answered so quickly it was almost silly:

"Clemente."

Max could hear only one side of the conversation, could read only the detective's somber expression.

"Yes?"

A pause.

"They did?"

Another pause.

"They are? ... Thank you."

Clemente hit End, rose from the table, and sighed. "That was Colonel Nickerson of the National Guard.... The order to attack has been rescinded."

The room erupted in whoops and hollers and applause, and they all took turns hugging each other—except, of course, for Max and Logan.

She approached the detective. "Okay," she said. "I guess I trust you."

His grin was explosive. "That was close."

"Around here, Ramon," she said, putting a hand on his shoulder, "they always are."

Clemente sat back down at the kitchen table and let out an even bigger sigh. "The feds are viewing Kelpy's story as a death-bed confession." He glanced at Gottlieb and then at Thompson. "Nickerson said they want to bring you two in from the cold, and they have agents scouring the area looking for Ames White. He's now a wanted felon."

The two former NSA agents grinned at each other like a couple of kids.

Standing nearby, arms folded, Max wasn't grinning. "They won't find White."

Clemente frowned up at her. "You sound sure of that."

"I know him. He's in the wind already." Then she got a little smile on her face.

"What?" the detective asked.

"I was just thinking ... better him than me."

Max wandered into the bathroom. Joshua rose and made room for her, so she could sit on the edge of the tub.

She took Kelpy's hand in hers. "You know, only Logan was supposed to be able to catch that virus."

The pale red-pocked form shrugged, making waves in the icy water of the tub. "Maybe

... in a way ... now I am Logan."

"Maybe."

"Max ... Max ... my body hurts."

"I know."

"But my mind... it's so clear that... it hurts, too."

"Yes."

"I... I did bad things."

"Yes."

"Terrible ... awful... monstrous things...."

She squeezed his hand. "But you did good things too. You saved a lot of lives tonight.

Every transgenic in Terminal City, and many on the other side of the fence. You saved us all—Joshua, Alec ... and me."

The smile on the Loganesque face was weak; his blue eyes were hauntingly familiar.

She told him, "I'll always love you for that."

And she kissed his hand.

A splotch of rose came to the pale cheeks, and it wasn't the sickness.

He whispered, "You love Logan, don't you?"

She glanced back.

Logan was in the doorway.

She was looking at Logan as she said to Kelpy, "Yes—yes, I do."

Logan's smile wasn't that big, really; yet the room could barely contain it.

"He's human," Kelpy said.

Now she gazed at Kelpy again—at this monster. And yet emotion welled within her.

"But I love you too," she told him. "I'll always love you for what you did for us...."

"I guess that makes me human too," he said. A single tear ran down the chalky cheek; then, with a lurch, he sat forward, almost scaring her, Logan's blue eyes huge in the pale, pale face.

"Am I human, Max?" Kelpy asked with terrible urgency.

But he died, his hand in hers, before she had time to answer.

Look for this explosive novel, the prequel to the hit television series!

DARK ANGEL

Book I Before the Dawn

Los Angeles, 2019. Large sections of Tinseltown are in Richter-scale ruins in the aftermath of the Pulse and a devastating earthquake. Surviving among a ragtag pack of street kids, Max steals from the rich and gives to Moody, her mentor in crime and leader of the gang. But with no real family to speak of, Max longs for her missing

"brothers and sisters" from Manticore, the covert agency with a sinister history of militaristic manipulation and control. By chance, Max sees a news story on TV about a dissident cyberjournalist in Seattle, known to everyone as "Eyes Only." The police are searching for his accomplice, a young rebel whose image flashes on the screen. Max immediately recognizes Seth, one of her Manticore siblings. She mounts her motorcycle and hightails it north. What she rides into is an elaborate web of betrayal, greed, revenge, and selfless heroism that will only further fuel her quest to uncover the secrets of her past—and seize hope for the future....

Published by Del Rey Books. Available wherever books are sold.