Maybe both.
“Why would someone do this?” Lyssa whispered, the shake in her voice matching the shock in her eyes.
“That’s what we’ve got to find out.” He returned his gaze to the house. With so little left to burn, the flames were beginning to die down. “I think it might be wise for you to go on a business trip.”
“Might be.” Stephan’s voice was dry. “At least we won’t have to worry about packing.”
Despite his brief attempt at humor, relief and anger mingled freely in the vivid green depths of his brother’s eyes. “Alone, I mean.”
Stephan’s gaze narrowed, but after a moment, he nodded. “What about Lyssa and Mary?”
“I’ll arrange a twenty-four-hour guard,” Martyn said, and then he hesitated and shrugged. “Accommodation might be a problem. If this is Sethanon’s doing, he might know all our safe houses.”
Mary was standing just behind Martyn, staring at the crater, a glazed look of horror on her face. Maybe she hadn’t known the power of the bomb.
Damn it, it made no sense that she would even set it. If she was behind the poisoning, why make such a public attempt of murder when the poisoning appeared to be working?
“Take Mary and set her up in apartment 317.” Stephan’s voice was even, despite the anger in his eyes. “We only acquired it three days ago, so it should be safe. Lyssa can stay with relatives.”
He meant their relatives, not her relatives. And she would be safe in the Stern compound. The question was, were they safe from her? How safe was it even showing her the location? But he couldn’t dispute Stephan’s decision, not without telling him why. And there was no point in doing that until he knew for sure that Sam was right. He’d just have to call his old man and have him keep an eye on Lyssa.
In the distance, sirens howled, drawing closer. People in dressing gowns hovered near the front gates or peered out windows from the surrounding houses. Stephan glanced over his shoulder, studying them. “State’s on the way. We tell them nothing.”
“They’ll want to know how we escaped.” Sam’s soft voice held a hint of annoyance.
“We know nothing, and we tell them nothing. This is our business, not State’s.” Stephan glanced at Gabriel. “Not even SIU.”
Sam looked ready to argue. He brushed his hand against hers and shook his head when she looked at him. Her gaze was mutinous, but after a moment, she nodded. He pulled the cell phone from his pocket and handed it to Stephan. “Let me handle State. Why don’t you ring the old man and make arrangements for Lyssa to go home?”
Stephan nodded and moved away a few steps, drawing Lyssa with him. Gabriel watched him for a minute longer, and then rose stiffly to his feet. Three black squad cars swept up the driveway, headlights spearing the darkness, targeting them in brightness.
“Now the fun begins,” Sam murmured.
He glanced at her. Her face was still pale, and her eyes were ringed by shadows of gray. She looked exhausted, beaten, yet her gaze held an edge of steel that told him she would battle on until she got the answers she needed. Kazdan certainly didn’t deserve the loyalty she gave him.
He held out a hand to help her up, and after a moment, she accepted it. Her fingers were like ice against his own. He shrugged out of his dinner jacket and placed it around her shoulders.
“Thanks.”
He nodded. “Let’s go face your fellow officers.”
She drew the coat tight across her chest, a gesture that was defensive more than an attempt to keep out the chill wind. “Only if we must.”
He could understand her reluctance—especially with the specter of Jack’s death still hanging over her head. But regardless of what happened, regardless of whether he eventually cleared her of blame, the fact was that she’d shot the man she thought was her partner. And they would always judge her by that one action. She could either live with it or quit.
He hoped it was the former. A recent survey by State showed that many disgraced officers spiraled down a self-destructive path. Sam, like those others, appeared to have nothing but her job in her life. He’d hate to see her step onto that same path.
“We must,” he replied softly.
She took a deep breath and blew it out slowly. Then she nodded and walked forward, her body a slender shadow against the brightness of the lights.
Martyn cleared his throat. Gabriel looked back at him.
“Don’t trust her,” Martyn warned in a low voice. “Just … watch it. She’s been Kazdan’s partner for five years. She might be a whole lot more.”
This coming from someone who’d long been infatuated with the woman who may have just tried to blow them all to bits. Gabriel studied Mary for a moment, and then nodded. Because in truth, he was worried about the depth of Sam’s determination to find out what her partner was up to. She might not love Kazdan, and she might well have shot him to save herself, but she certainly still cared about him. Who knew what would happen if Kazdan ever tried to subvert those feelings?
“Just get Mary to that safe house and keep a watch on her. Then you’d better send out a warning to our other operatives.” And he’d do the same with the SIU. This might be the first of another round of retaliations against both organizations.
Martyn nodded. “I’ll be in contact once we’ve settled.”
He nodded, and then he turned and followed Sam to the squad cars.
SAM LEANED A SHOULDER AGAINST the roughened trunk of an old silky oak and watched Gabriel walk toward her. His pace was loose-limbed and graceful. Powerful, and yet oddly sexy. She frowned at the thought, wondering where her mind was at, and thrust it away.
He’d spent the last hour or so speaking to various levels of officialdom and, for the most part, had managed to keep her out of it. Which she sure as hell didn’t mind. The lieutenant who’d briefly interviewed her had made his opinion of her quite clear. She’d shot her partner. She deserved to be lying in bits, not sitting in a squad car sipping lukewarm coffee. Not long after that pleasant experience, she’d abandoned the car, and her coffee, and retreated to the shelter of the silky oak. At least trees didn’t judge.
“You okay?” Gabriel stopped, and held out a steaming mug of coffee.
Sam accepted it gratefully. “Once I warm up a little, I will be.” She wrapped her fingers round the plastic mug and studied the black-clad figures swarming the crater. “Are they going to let us go anytime soon?”
“We can go whenever we please. I’m just waiting for SIU to deliver another car. Not much left of the old one, I’m afraid.”
She nodded. She’d noted one of the doors wrapped around the trunk of a sugar gum earlier. Who knew where the rest of the vehicle was? “What’s the plan when we get the car?”
His hazel eyes were suddenly enigmatic. “We visit Jack’s apartment.”
She frowned. “Is that wise? He might be home. And if he isn’t, he sure as hell will have the place alarmed.”
“He’s a vampire. He won’t be home at this hour of the night. Alarms I can get around.”
Maybe normal alarms he could. But he didn’t know Jack, didn’t know how devious he could be. “That end of the central business district tends to be high security. We may not even get in.”
His sudden smile held a cynical edge. “I’m SIU. I can get in anywhere.” His gaze ran past her. “Car’s here.”
She glanced over her shoulder. Two gray Fords were pulling to a halt near the black squad cars. “I really don’t think raiding Jack’s is a good idea.”
“Is that a professional or personal opinion?”
Annoyance ran through her. He obviously still believed she was somehow linked to Jack. That her actions, her reluctance, were an attempt to protect him. Maybe she’d have to shoot Jack again just to get Gabriel to believe anything else.
The thought shook her. Jack was her friend. She refused to believe anything else, even if the mounting evidence was to the contrary. At the very least, he deserved the chance to explain his motives—and to explain why his
clone had tried to kill her. Gabriel was here only because he wanted to find out more about her ability to sense the kites. To do that, he had to keep her out of prison. Friendship certainly didn’t enter into the equation.
“Let’s get out of here,” was all she said, as she pushed past him and headed for the car.
Two gray-clad SIU officers greeted them with polite nods. One handed over a key-coder. That was it. No questions about what had happened to the previous car, and no forms to fill in. Jack was right. SIU was a law unto itself—and, through Gabriel, it was a world she was getting sucked into deeply. And something told her only death would now free her from its grip.
She climbed into the car and crossed her arms, trying to ignore a sense of trepidation. In one respect, Gabriel was right. They had to find out what was on those disks, and Jack’s computer might be the only one capable of reading them. But Jack would know by now that she’d taken them. He wouldn’t take a chance on her not knowing about the apartment. He’d anticipate it and be ready.
Gabriel started the car and drove away smoothly, heading for the city. She watched the bright lights draw closer, and with every mile that passed, the sense of danger grew.
They arrived too soon for her liking. She climbed out of the car and looked up. The building was little more than a wall of black glass that acted like a mirror, reflecting the myriad lights of Federation Square. Black marble steps led up to the foyer doors, which were also black glass with gold fittings. The whole place reeked of money. How could Jack afford to own an apartment here? He earned the same salary she did, and she wouldn’t be able to rent a closet in a place like this. Hell, she could barely afford the council rates on her Brighton apartment, and that was only on the outskirts of Melbourne, so how could Jack afford this place, right in the city’s heart? Besides, he’d been having trouble keeping up with the payments on his Mulgrave home. If he owned this, why would he even bother?
Gabriel headed up the steps, and she reluctantly followed. A doorman, dressed in gray and gold, nodded politely and keyed open the huge glass doors.
She shook her head. How could anyone at State have missed this? If SIU had known about the apartment, surely State must have known—and that, in itself, suggested the apartment was legit. Anything shady would have been investigated.
Their footsteps echoed sharply in the cavernous foyer. The huge reception desk was actually manned, rather than having the usual hands-on computer help. The tall blond woman smiled as they approached, and her smile didn’t falter when Gabriel flashed his badge.
“Could you tell me if the occupant of apartment eight-eleven is currently in?”
The woman looked at her monitors. “No, he’s not.”
“Good. We need you to open it up for us.”
“I can’t do that, sir.”
“Yes, you can. I have a warrant.”
He pulled out his cell phone and pressed a few buttons. The woman studied the screen for a few minutes, then nodded. “I can use the cleaning code to give you access, but the time will still be limited to half an hour. I’m afraid there’s nothing I can do about that—I haven’t got the clearance to change the programming.”
“Half an hour will do.”
The woman pressed a white button near the monitor. “I’ve called the elevator. It will take you straight to the eighth floor. Mr. Kazdan’s apartment is on the right.”
“Thank you for your assistance.”
The woman nodded. “I will, of course, have to call Mr. Kazdan and inform him of your warrant and search.”
“And you will, of course, inform us when Kazdan enters the building.”
The blonde nodded a second time. Sam walked over to the elevators. Once the doors slid open, she stepped inside. Gabriel followed.
“I thought you didn’t want Jack to know we’re here,” she said, as the elevator began to rise.
He shrugged. “All we need is enough time to see what’s on those disks. I doubt whether Kazdan will actually turn up.”
“Don’t underestimate him,” she said softly. “He has a mind as fast as his temper. He’ll be ready for a move such as this.”
His eyes were a subtle green under the elevator’s soft light. Green and cold, she thought.
“I don’t underestimate anyone,” he said.
Including her, obviously. While his distrust rankled, she understood it. Hell, even she wasn’t certain where her loyalties should lie.
The elevator came to a smooth halt on the eighth floor. He looked out and then motioned her forward. The door to Jack’s apartment slid open as they neared. She hesitated in the doorway, her stomach churning as she stared down at the line where the hallway’s plush gray carpet met the rich burgundy carpet of Jack’s apartment. If she stepped past that line, what she discovered might forever alter her relationship with the one person she’d ever allowed closer than arm’s length.
“You intend to stand there forever?” While Gabriel’s voice had no inflection, his eyes held a hardness that suggested he understood her sudden reluctance to enter. “We only have half an hour.”
He touched a hand to her back, his fingers warm against her spine, but didn’t push. She licked her lips and stepped inside. The room was sparsely furnished. A large leather sofa faced the ceiling-high wall of glass running the length of the apartment. An entertainment center covered the wall to her left, and a black glass dining table sat in the middle of the room. The apartment had no kitchen or autocook. Maybe it was fully serviced—not that a vampire had any need for it. Two doors led off the main room, and both were closed.
She shoved her hands into her pockets and walked across to the window. The faint strains of a jazz band drifted up from Federation Square. The whole place was ablaze with light and sound and people enjoying life. It was a feeling so different from the one she was getting from this apartment that it might as well have been another world.
She rubbed her arms and turned around. “The com-unit must be in one of the other rooms.”
Gabriel nodded and waved a hand toward the only two interior doors in the apartment. “Care to pick one?”
Both looked identical, but the carpet leading up to the one on the left had definitely seen more traffic. “Left door.”
She followed him across the room. The door slid open silently, revealing another large expanse of carpet and a big round bed draped in red silk. She walked over and lightly touched the sheets. Real silk, not fake. While it went with the feel of the apartment, it didn’t go with what she knew of Jack. So who was the genuine article? The man who owned this apartment, with its bed big enough to hold a party in and the million-dollar view, or the rough, friendly man who’d been her partner these past five years?
“Right door first time,” Gabriel murmured, as he walked across to the com-unit. “You sure you’ve never been here before?”
His hazel eyes were cold and cynical. He still wasn’t entirely convinced that she and Jack were only friends. On some level, he still thought they were involved—not as lovers, perhaps, but as conspirators. It was a belief she could at least live with, since time and evidence would prove her innocence.
She hoped.
She ignored his question, dug into her bag and got out the disks. “Let’s hope the computer’s not security coded.”
He accepted the disks as he sat down on the chair. The com-screen came to life, revealing a dusky-skinned, large-busted woman with the most amazing green eyes. Sam smiled. At least she was clothed. Most of the digital personalities she’d seen Jack use were of the wild-and-free variety.
“How may I help you?” a husky voice asked.
“Translate data disks.”
“Translation proceeding.”
She raised an eyebrow. No security code, not even voice-key security. Why? Was Jack so confident no one knew about this apartment that he just hadn’t bothered?
“Translation finished. Do you wish to view results?”
He glanced at her. “Wouldn’t have a spare disk in your ba
g, would you?”
She hesitated, then dug the wristcom out of her bag. “I have this. Almost as good.”
“I’m surprised State didn’t request this back when they suspended you.”
“They did. This is Jack’s.”
He gave her a half-smile as he attached the wristcom to the com-unit. “Obviously, they weren’t watching you closely enough. You should never have been able to get something like this out of the building after you were suspended.”
She shrugged. “But I didn’t leave right away. I went down for psych evaluations.”
“Same thing. If you ask me, your captain was giving you time.”
She remembered feeling surprised when she’d walked out of the cap’s office to find no escort. Had the captain given her the only help he could, time alone to sort through Jack’s desk and maybe find some clue? If he had, it would suggest he’d believed her version of events, and that, at least, was good to know, even if he couldn’t actually do anything official to help her.
“Computer, display results, then download all three translations to wristcom …” Gabriel hesitated, glancing at her.
“1045,” she supplied.
“1045,” he repeated.
“Proceeding. Disk one currently on screen.”
She placed a hand on the back of the chair and leaned over Gabriel’s shoulder. Disk one was little more than a series of names, with monetary amounts next to them.
“There are a few government officials on this list.” She reached past him and placed a finger on the screen. “Isn’t Dan Wetherton the Minister for Social Services?”
He nodded. “He may also be very dead.”
“When did that happen? I didn’t hear anything on the news about it—not that I’ve had much chance to listen to updates recently.”
Amusement flitted briefly through his eyes. “That’s because, officially, the minister is alive and very well.”
She took a moment to absorb this. “Another clone.”
“Another clone,” he agreed.
“But which one is the clone? The dead one or the live one?”