Memory Zero (Spook Squad 1)

He swore under his breath, though in truth, he wasn’t really surprised. The need to break loose, to find answers herself, had been very evident in her eyes earlier. He just hadn’t thought she’d succeed in getting past SIU’s security so easily.

“I’ll find her. See you tonight.”

He hung up and handed the phone back to Karl. “You took a risk, bringing Harvey in on this.”

Karl shrugged. “I was with Stephan when he sensed you were in trouble. With the poisoner obviously being someone close, he didn’t want to trust your safety to just anyone. So I came.”

Gabriel rubbed his ribs. Christ, it hurt to breathe. “And Harvey?”

Karl handed him two tablets. “Painkillers.” Once Gabriel had swallowed them, Karl added, “Harv was in town signing up for extra university courses, and I was supposed to pick him up and bring him home once I’d finished with Stephan. He’s been itching to get into some action for a while now, and this was safer than some of our operations.”

True. Lord only knew how many had gone sour recently—which again pointed to someone close to home. But which of the three?

“You going to take those four back to Federation headquarters?” He indicated the prone forms on the road.

“Yeah, but not before I look after these wounds of yours.”

Karl began swabbing the blood away from Gabriel’s face. He grimaced and pushed his friend’s hand away. “I’m fine. Really.”

“Yeah, right,” Karl said, voice dry. “Doesn’t mean a thing that you look like a pincushion that’s borne the brunt of too many pins.”

“You’re exaggerating again, my friend. No one could look that bad.” Even though he certainly felt that bad.

Karl smiled. “Maybe I should get a mirror. Or maybe I should just leave you alone and let Stephan take care of you tonight.”

He raised an eyebrow. “That a threat?” If it was, it was a damn good one, because if he looked as bad as Karl was suggesting, Stephan would ban him from field operations. He’d threatened it more than once already, particularly after Mathew, their youngest sibling, had been killed a year ago.

Karl’s smile widened. “Could be. Your choice.”

He quit fighting the inevitable and bore the rest of Karl’s ministrations in silence. At least the salve Karl applied liberally over his face and ribs eased the pain somewhat.

“I want you to have a quick look at the body in the trunk,” he said, once Karl had finished. “His face seems familiar.”

Karl nodded and wrapped a hand around Gabriel’s arm, helping him up. The painkillers had kicked in, and the aches were little more than a distant promise of pain yet to come. But given the strength of that muted ache, he’d be lucky if he could move tomorrow. The bastards really had stuck the boots in once they’d knocked him out.

“You’re lucky shapechangers have strong bones,” Karl said, his expression grim. “Any other man would be in the hospital right now.”

“Forgive me if I don’t feel particularly lucky,” he muttered, and rolled the corpse over. “You recognize him?”

Karl frowned slightly. “Hard to say for certain, with the face so bloated, but it looks a lot like Dan Wetherton.”

The Minister for Social Services. No wonder the face had seemed so familiar. He’d been in the news a lot lately, raising hell about the amount of money the government had allocated to science and technology in the latest budget offering.

“Looks like someone wanted him out of the way.”

“But this man’s been dead for two or three days,” Karl said. “Wetherton was on the news last night.”

Gabriel frowned at the corpse. He didn’t doubt that Karl had the right man, but if Wetherton was on the news, who was this? Another clone? The second in as many days? That was more than just a coincidence.

Something big was obviously going down.

He studied the body a moment longer, then asked, “Wetherton’s in town tomorrow, isn’t he?”

Karl nodded. “Premier’s meeting.”

“Take this one back and run genetic tests. I’ll see if I can arrange for a cell sample from Wetherton.”

Karl raised an eyebrow. “No one’s ever been able to clone a human to the point where mannerisms, memories and behavior are an exact match. They might be genetically identical, but there are always differences.”