MINE TO POSSESS

Zeke got desperate when I still wouldn’t talk …


His Tally had gone mute rather than betray him. She had continued to love him though he’d broken every damn promise he’d ever made to her. It enraged the leopard that he couldn’t keep her safe now, reminded him of those years when Orrin had been hurting her and he hadn’t known. She was his life. He’d destroy the world for her. Yet this disease left him helpless.

“I had a call from Dev Santos earlier.” He forced himself to think past the blood fury. “He’s disposed of the mole.”

Dorian gave him a curious look. “Disposed?”

“I’m guessing in very small pieces.”

“I like this guy already.” Leaning back against the wall of the house, Dorian frowned. “You know, if these kidnappers have lost that source of information, they’re going to need a new one.” He swore. “They won’t kill Talin. They’ll try to take her alive.”

“No, they won’t.” Clay felt the claws of the animal unfurl within his skin, felt the power of it rip through his flesh. “It’s hard for dead men to do anything.”





CHAPTER 40


Ming LeBon sat in Ashaya’s office once more. She hadn’t expected to see him for days, given the situation in the PsyNet.

“Larsen seems convinced you had something to do with the disappearance of the two remaining test subjects.”

“I did,” she said, wondering if she’d made a fatal mistake. Had Larsen had Ming’s active support? Her findings had led her to conclude that the other scientist had gone far beyond the limits of anything Ming had authorized.

Ming didn’t even blink at her confession. “What did you do to them?”

“I terminated them.”

“Where are the bodies?”

“Gone.” She met his expressionless face with a blank look of her own. “It would’ve been stupid to kill them as a message and then leave their remains to be found so Larsen could utilize the brain tissue.”

“And my man?”

Ashaya had no need to lie. “I’m afraid you have me at a disadvantage. I did this on my own.”

“I don’t take well to losing one of mine.”

“Ming, while I’m happy to take on Larsen,” she said with absolute truthfulness, “I have no desire to make an enemy out of you. We both know who would walk out alive. If one of your men has disappeared, I would look elsewhere for the culprit.”

A pause that lasted sixty seconds. The chill of the lab worked its way into Ashaya’s bones but she remained unmoving. She was glad for her control when Ming said, “A traitorous e-mail has been traced to this facility.”

An inexcusable error. She had acted on the assumption—always dangerous—that the outmoded Internet pathways out of Cinnamon Springs were not being monitored. “I’m sure you’ve taken care of the culprit.”

“I will—as soon as I break the encryption on the remaining e-mails.”

She thanked Talin McKade for whatever it was she had done to hide their tracks. “Would you like to scan my organizer?” she offered, having prepared a duplicate for this very purpose. It would pass most checks. The critical word was “most.”

Ming watched her. “Not at present. If you were to prove the traitor, I would have to kill you. That would be inconvenient.”

Ashaya held his gaze, very aware her death would be nothing easy. “Indeed.”

“Tell me, why did you sabotage Larsen’s work?”

“Because this is my lab.” Her tone was ice. “You assured me I was the head M-Psy on the project.”

“Larsen was taking a parallel but different approach to the implant issue.”

“Nonsense.” She handed him a slim electronic data file. “Look at the results.”

“Where did these scans come from?”

“From the experimental subjects.”

“These don’t correlate to the ones I’ve seen.”

“Then I suggest you ask Larsen to explain.” She kept her tone unflinching. “He must have been doctoring data in order to gain support for his unauthorized experiments.” Anything that went on in her lab was supposed to go through her, and, when new lines of research were involved, through Ming.

“According to these readings, the brain patterns of the Forgotten are nothing like ours.”

“Yes.” Not quite the complete truth. If Larsen—now on his way to San Francisco—survived the next twenty-four hours, she would have to ensure she had enough “data” to refute his conclusions. Ashaya didn’t think she’d need her backup plan, not if Talin McKade’s friends were as lethal as they appeared.

The only problem was that Larsen had taken Ekaterina with him and Ashaya had no way to share that information with Ms. McKade—Security had cut off all access to the Internet. “Any experiments run on the Forgotten are worthless in terms of Protocol I, even had Larsen followed proper research methods.”