Memory Zero (18 page)

“No. But the disks were hidden in the false bottom of a drawer. Suzy came back specifically to get them.”

“Have you tried reading them?” He frowned, and tilted the envelope to one side. What looked like a strip of plastic was embedded along one edge.

She shook her head. “I haven’t exactly had the chance. And my com-unit is back at the SIU with my stuff.”

“Han’s probably got one we can use. Wait here.” He rose and went in search of Han. The big man was in the kitchen, and he directed Gabriel to the portable unit in his office. Sam’s frown deepened as he returned and handed her the unit.

“There’s not enough light in this room to run this unit.”

There was a touch of reluctance in her voice, and he had to wonder whether it was simply a matter of knowing what was on the disks and not wanting him to see it or that she didn’t want to pry into Kazdan’s affairs any more than necessary. But that didn’t make any sense—not if she wanted answers.

Maybe she wasn’t after answers. Maybe she just wanted her partner back.

He glanced at the ceiling. “Hologram off. Lights on.”

A bell chimed softly in the distance. The dragons fled, and bright light filled the room. “Problem solved,” he said.

Her eyes narrowed at his unspoken challenge, and she took the disks back. He picked up the envelope and carefully tore off an edge, revealing the tip of thin plastic he’d noticed earlier. He clutched it between two fingers and lightly tugged. After a slight resistance, it came free, and he held it up to the light. It held a series of images, though they were far too small to pick out any detail. Han probably had a scanner they could use, but Gabriel didn’t want to involve his friend any more than he already had. Han might support the Federation, but he was no longer an active member. They could wait till he got home—or to Karl’s.

He put the strip back in the envelope and placed it inside his jacket. Sam was frowning at the com-unit.

“What’s wrong?”

“The unit won’t read the disks.”

He pushed the edge of the unit around until he could see the screen.
Disk error
, it stated. “You put them in the right way?”

Her look was pure irritation. “Nah, I put them in upside down for the hell of it.”

“Then maybe they’ve been coded.”

“Why would Jack bother coding data disks?”

He shrugged and leaned back. “Maybe for the same reason he hid them.”

She shook her head. “It doesn’t make any sense. Jack’s a computer whiz. If he wanted to hide something, he could do it far more easily than messing around with these things.” She nudged a disk with her fingertip. “For a start, they’re too easily damaged.”

Maybe the information was too explosive to be held on any com-unit. No computer was safe—not from the government, not from any number of hackers. If Jack were a hacker himself, he’d be well aware of that fact.

“The SIU system might be able to decode them.” And it had the added advantage of having trackers installed, so if someone
did
get interested, they’d get some warning. Not that that had stopped information leaks in the past, but right now, they had little other choice. “We should also take a closer look at Jack’s clone.”

She nodded. “And talk to the two men who were trying to nab him.”

“That too.” He’d especially like to know who’d told them to give up Sethanon’s name when questioned.

“When do I get to meet your friends?”

He raised an eyebrow. “Does that mean we have an agreement?”

Her hesitation was briefer this time. “Yes.” She held out her hand.

Her fingers were long and slender and seemed to get lost within his. “Then you meet my friends tonight.”

“And afterward you’ll help me find out what Jack’s up to?”

“And stop him.”

Her gaze dropped to the table. “And stop him,” she agreed softly.

Why was she so loyal to the bastard? And why did she cling to the notion that talking to Kazdan would solve anything? There was only one person in the world that Kazdan looked out for—himself. If she held any notion that the two of them were really friends, she was deluding herself.

“Let’s go,” he said, rising.

She nodded, gathering the disks and shoving them back in her pocket. He followed her out the door, wondering what she’d do when the time came to kill Kazdan.

T
HE FEELING HIT THE MINUTE
Sam left the elevator and walked into the lobby—a wash of heat, followed by the certainty that there was a shifter nearby, which was a given, considering these were the halls of the SIU. Except for one thing. This shifter
felt
bad. The way Suzy had felt bad. The way the thing that had attacked her on the rooftop had felt bad. She stopped and stared down the hallway to her right. It was in the labs.

“You okay?”

Gabriel’s soft question made her jump. She stared up at him for a moment, then swallowed and nodded. “This is going to sound odd, but there’s a shifter down in the labs.”

“It could be anyone. There are over twenty shifters currently working for the SIU, you know.” Even so, he stared down the hall, hazel eyes filled with concern.

“I know, but this feels … wrong.” So wrong it was beginning to leave a very bad taste in the back of her mouth.

His frown deepened. “Let’s go take a look.”

She nodded. The sensation grew stronger as they approached the labs, until it felt like every inch of her skin was itching. The door swished open as they approached. There was no one inside.

“Odd,” he murmured, moving across to the com-unit. He ran a finger along one edge of the screen, and then held it up to her. “Blood.”

She hoped it wasn’t Finley’s. Hoped it didn’t mean he was dead. As much as she loathed the tests, Finley himself had been okay. She reached back for the laser and saw that Gabriel had already drawn his gun. “The shifter is in the next room,” she said quietly. He nodded and walked to the next door. She followed, keeping to the opposite side of him.

There wasn’t a sound to be heard. Even the hum of the test units seemed silenced. Soft light washed through the room, giving the walls a waxy appearance. She glanced up at him. He motioned to the left, and then held up three fingers. She nodded and began to silently count. At three, she moved in, laser raised.

Two people looked up from the com-screen. One was Finley, the other a woman with bright blue hair and a body any wrestler would be proud of.

Finley raised an eyebrow in surprise. “You have a problem, Assistant Director?”

“I think we might.” Gabriel’s voice was cold, his weapon centered on the young doctor. “Don’t move.” Heat washed a warning across her skin. This was the shifter, and he was not the real Finley. Then the woman moved. Almost as if it were in slow motion, she saw the gun in the woman’s hand, saw her finger curl round the trigger. Sam raised the laser and dove to her right, firing as she fell. The blue bolt missed by
a hairsbreadth, zinging past the woman’s ear and searing into the cabinets behind her. Almost simultaneously, she heard Gabriel’s gun bark—a sound that was echoed by the shifter’s weapon. A bullet hit the floor near her toes, tearing away a huge chunk of carpet and concrete.

She scrambled to her feet and saw the shifter lunge at her. She dodged and fired the laser. Again she missed, the blue bolt bouncing off the wall near his head and sizzling back along the desk. Then he was on her, his weight hitting with the force of a tree. She struck the floor with a grunt, the air forced from her lungs as she took the brunt of his weight. Then his hands were grabbing her, trying to pin her arms. She swore, avoiding his hands even as she punched him with her free hand. Though her blows landed with enough force to jar her arm, he didn’t react, simply shifted his weight so that suddenly it was hard to breathe. She bucked, trying to move him, but he was as unmovable as a brick wall. Her lungs began to burn with the need for air. He caught the hand that held the weapon, his grip bruising her flesh as he forced her arm back over her head. Cursing him, and wasting precious air in the process, she drove her free hand between them and grabbed his testicles, squeezing hard. He yelped in surprise, simultaneously jerking back and releasing her arm. She bucked him off, and then fired the laser at his face. He fell back, howling in pain as his skin blackened and began to peel away.

She scrambled to her feet, then sent him spiraling into unconsciousness with a kick to the head. Gabriel swung round, weapon raised. The blue-haired woman lay at his feet, pinned by the foot he’d ground into her
throat. Yet another sign how little the SIU cared about prisoner rights.

He seemed to relax slightly as their gazes met. “You okay?”

She nodded, then bent and lightly touched the shifter’s neck. He had a pulse, which was good, but his face was never going to be the same, even though the laser had been set on low. She walked over to Gabriel.

“You know either of these two?” he asked.

The woman shifted her arm slightly. Gabriel pressed a little harder on her throat, and all movement stopped. Sam stared at their blue-haired prisoner. The woman had a hole blown clear through her thigh, and blood poured down the side of her face from another wound near the hairline. Yet, despite this, it was anger and hate, not pain, that filled her dark eyes as she glared at up them.

“No,” she replied. “You?”

“This one,” he said, pushing his heel deeper into the woman’s throat, “goes by the name Ruby Lee. Works part-time down at the Body Beautiful Gym, and the rest of the time as a high-class thief.”

Ruby Lee obviously wasn’t human. Otherwise she’d be suffering a crushed larynx right about now. “What the hell is a thief doing sneaking into the SIU?”

“Good question.” He motioned to the machines lining one wall. “Why don’t you go see if the real Finley is alive so we can find out?”

She nodded and walked across to the machines. The young doctor was in the third unit, unconscious. Squeezing in beside him, she lightly touched his neck. His pulse was steady and strong, but he had a decent-sized egg on his skull. He’d probably have a hell of a headache for several days to come.

“Hey, Finley, you okay?” She pinched his cheek, trying to get some sort of response. A soft groan was her only reply. She climbed out of the machine and walked back to Gabriel. Three men and a woman, all clad in SIU gray, had joined him.

“Finley’s alive, but he’s out of it for the moment.”

He nodded and glanced at the woman in gray. “Take these two to security, Briggs, and get the medics in here for Finley. And watch the woman carefully—she’s something of an escape artist.”

Briggs nodded and motioned to one of the men to help her with the woman. The other moved across to the shifter.

She watched them leave, then looked at Gabriel. “I was under the impression shifters could take only one alternate human form, with the second identity being ordained when they were young. So how come this shifter was able to walk right in and take Finley’s form?”

“Because there’s a strain of shifter that can take alternate forms at will.”

She raised an eyebrow. “That’s something of a well-kept secret, isn’t it?”

He shrugged and crossed to the com-screen. “Why prejudice humans against shifters any more than necessary, especially when multi-shifters are considered relatively rare?”

“ ‘Relatively rare’ meaning what?”

“It means there are only a small percentage of shifters overall who are capable of taking multiple forms. I believe the figure is somewhere around ten to fifteen percent.”

“Which isn’t exactly a small number, when you think about it.”

“That depends on your point of view.” His attention was on the screen, his reply almost absent.

She leaned forward, her face close to his. As she stared at the screen, her nostrils filled with his warm, spicy aroma. “That’s gibberish.”

“Indeed.” He glanced up as two medics entered. “Finley’s in unit three.”

She waited until the two medics, carrying Finley on a stretcher, had left. “Have you tried retrieving anything?”

“Computer, update on test results for Samantha Ryan.”

“Voice identification required.”

“Stern, Assistant Director. Badge number 5019.”

“Voice verified. Request processing.”

The com-unit hummed softly. “Results for test subject Samantha Ryan unavailable.”

“Why?”

The com-unit hummed for several more seconds. “Results for test subject Samantha Ryan unavailable.”

“Sounds like it’s been looped.”

He nodded. His gaze, when it met hers, was grim. “Someone doesn’t want us nosing around your genetic history.”

“Put like that, I’m not sure if I do, either.” She glanced back at the screen. “How could they simply walk in here and do that? I thought the SIU had a top security system.”

“We have retina and voice ID, but sometimes that doesn’t mean much.”

Not when shifters could take alternate forms at will. But even if shifters lacked that ability, no system was truly safe. Jack could have gotten in here.
Had
gotten in here, if the drunken boast she’d overheard
one night was true. “But why would they bother stopping anyone getting access to my files? I’m not so special.”