Memory Zero (Spook Squad 1)

“It’s certainly a possibility.” His expression was bleak when he glanced at her. “Let’s see what’s on the other disks. Computer, display data from disk two.”

“Displaying,” intoned the sultry voice.

Another list came onto the screen. “More names and donations,” she muttered. “Surely they can’t all be paying money to be cloned.”

“They’re not.” Gabriel pointed to the right of the screen. “Wetherton had the number P1-c after his name. These are P4-v.”

“C for clone, v for vampire?”

“It may be as simple as that.”

“Why would anyone pay money to become a vampire?”

“Why not? Man spends billions of dollars every year trying to cheat death—something a vampire has already achieved. Given the choice, what would you choose?”

“Better death than life as a bloodsucker.”

“Not all vampires are evil. Not all vampires take sustenance from humans to survive.”

The edge in his voice suggested this was more than just an opinion. “And you? Given the choice, what would you do?”

He shrugged. “That would depend very much on what, or even who, I had to live for.”

She frowned. “So if you loved someone enough, you’d take the change? Isn’t that a little sick?”

“As I said, depends on your reasoning.”

“You’ve done it, haven’t you?” she said, unable to stop the hint of revulsion creeping into her voice. “You’ve performed the ceremony that will enable you to make the change when you die.”

His eyes showed a faint hint of surprise. “I haven’t, but a close friend has. Not for love, but for reasons I can well understand.”

“Stephan. You’re talking about Stephan.” Why she was so certain, she couldn’t say. But in the two days she’d known Gabriel, she’d seen him interact with many people, both work colleagues and friends. With Stephan, there had been something more than friendship. With him, there was a bond that went much, much deeper.

“I can see why you’re a good cop.” A brief smile tugged the corners of his lips. “And yes, it is Stephan I was talking about.”

“What about Lyssa?”

A veil came down over his eyes. For some reason, Lyssa was not someone he wanted to talk about right now.

“Her, too,” he said, looking back to the screen. “Computer, display translation disk three.”

“Displayed.”

The third disk was not a list of names and donations. It was a series of pictures, and the subject was Lyssa.

“Looks like someone’s setting her up for a hit,” she said. “They’ve obviously been following her around.”

“Maybe.”

There was an edge to his voice that suggested anger, though it hadn’t yet reached his eyes. “What I want to know is how deeply Kazdan’s involved in all this,” he said.

She frowned. “I don’t understand why you’d think—”

He touched a finger to her lips, halting her question. “Listen,” he said softly.

For a moment, she could hear nothing beyond the sound of their breathing. Could feel nothing but the warmth of his finger against her lips. Then, slowly, she became aware of a faint hissing sound. It sounded for all the world like a snake had moved into one corner of the room.

Only no snake could get into a building like this.