Origin in Death (In Death 21)

"You think?" She shook her head. "We've got nearly sixty on record now attending the Academy. There must be hundreds more, already graduated. What happened to the ones that didn't come out exactly right? How much do you think he loved the ones that weren't perfect?"

"That's a hideous thought."

"Yeah. I've got a million of them."

She took time to put it together into a report, to contact Whitney and request an early briefing. She tagged Peabody on the way to Cen­tral and arranged to pick up her partner.

Peabody hopped into the car, tossed her hair. It was longer by a good four inches and did a kind of flip at the tips.

"McNab truly spiked on my hair. I've got to remember to shake things up more often."

Eve gave her a cautious sidelong glance. "It makes you look girly."

"I know!" Obviously pleased with the comment, Peabody snuggled back in her seat. "And it was great being a girl after I got home last night. He went ape shit over the papaya boob cream."

"Stop now, save us both. We've got a situation."

"Figured you didn't offer to pick me up to save me a fight with the subway."

"I'm going to brief you on the way, then the commander. We'll have a full briefing-EDD included-at ten hundred."

Peabody said nothing as Eve ran through the data she'd gathered overnight. Her silence carried through into the garage at Central.

"No questions, no observations?"

"I'm just... absorbing, I guess. It's so contrary to my makeup. My DNA, I guess you could say. The way I was raised, taught. Creating life is the job of a higher power. It's our job, our duty and our joy, to nurture life, protect and respect it. I know that sounds Free-Agey but-"

"It's not so far off from what I think. But personal sensibilities aside, human reproductive cloning is illegal under the laws of New York, the laws of the country, and the laws governing science and commerce on and off planet. Evidence indicates the Icoves broke those laws. And their murders, which is our domain, were a direct result of that."

"Are we going to have to turn this over to the- Who handles this kind of thing? The FBI? Global? Interplanetary?"

Eve's face was set as she slammed out of the vehicle. "Not if I can help it. I want you to hit research mode. Get everything you can on human cloning. Technical areas, legal areas, equipment, techniques, ct bates, claims, histories, myths. We want to know what we're talking about when we get to Brookhollow."

"Dallas, with what you found out, we're going to find them up there. Some of them are just kids. They're just kids."

"We'll deal with it when we come to it."

Whitney wasn't as reticent as Peabody, and peppered Eve with questions throughout her report.

"This is a Nobel Prize winner, Lieutenant, whose memorial service, scheduled for fourteen hundred this afternoon, will be attended by heads of state, worldwide. His son, whose reputation and acclaim were rising to match his father's, will be similarly honored next week. New York will hold both these events, and the security, the media- the fucking traffic details are already a nightmare. If a whiff of this leaks, it could go beyond nightmare into the realm of international clusterfuck."

"It won't leak."

"You better be damn sure of that, and damn sure of your facts."

"Fifty-six matches, sir, through Brookhollow Academy alone. I be­lieve many if not all of these correspond to the coded files Icove Sr. kept in his apartment-his currents, so to speak. He worked closely with a geneticist, and was, at one time, a vocal proponent of genetic manipulation."

"Genetic manipulation is a thorny area. Human cloning is a dark, dank forest. The ramifications-"

"Commander, the ramifications already involve two deaths."

"The ramifications will echo beyond your two homicides. Political, moral, religious, medical. If your allegations are fact, there are existing clones, many of them minor. For some, they'll become the monster, for others the victims." He rubbed his eyes. "We'll need some expert legal opinions on this. Every agency from Global to Homeland is going to jump on this."

"If you notify them of the recent findings, they'll take it from us. They'll shut down the investigation."

"They will. What's your objection?"

"They're my homicides, Commander."