Memory Zero (Spook Squad 1)

Again, a simple statement that contained a lot of meaning. She crossed her legs in irritation. Damn it, she was getting more than a little tired of people keeping her in the dark. She gulped some of the scotch. The liquid burned down her throat and began to warm the cold pit in her stomach.

“How are those feet of yours?”

She met Karl’s eyes. Something more than polite interest lurked in their brown depths. He was suspicious, but not exactly of her. That made about as much sense as Jack pulling his punches. She swallowed another mouthful of scotch, and then said, “Fine, thanks.” Her gaze went to Gabriel’s. “Now that we have the niceties over with, why don’t you tell me why we’re really here?”

He regarded her steadily. “I told you in the cab.” As if to emphasize his point, he dug the envelope out of his pocket and placed it on the coffee table.

“You evaded the subject in the cab,” she corrected. “I want the truth this time.”

Karl snorted softly. “Told you.”

She glanced at him. He raised his glass in a salute, a grin splitting his thin lips. “Don’t take none of his crap, lass. He’s a man used to playing his cards close to his chest. You have to push to learn.”

“Believe me, she pushes,” Gabriel muttered, then leaned forward, his hazel eyes suddenly intense. “Okay, then—I brought you here because Karl wants to run a couple of extra tests.”

She groaned. “What sort of tests?”

As she spoke, a soft ringing started. Gabriel rose, digging the cell phone out of his pocket as he walked into the other room.

The tension level leapt about ten degrees. Why, she had no idea. She took another gulp of scotch, but it did little to ease the sudden, uneasy churning in her stomach.

“News!” Gabriel called from the other room. “Put the news on, now!”

Karl pressed a button on the arm of his chair, and a panel slid aside on the wall opposite the sofas. A vid-screen came to life.

“… current reports suggest the toll could be as high as one hundred. While the State offices held only a skeletal crew, the SIU was fully manned.”

The camera zoomed in on the devastation behind the female reporter. It looked like some voracious giant had come along and taken a huge bite out of one side of the building. Flames gleamed in the darkness, their golden glow highlighting the paper and other bits of rubbish that still drifted like snow to the ground. The rest of the building, while still whole, looked like it had been shaken by a severe quake. Windows were shattered, lights were out and fires burned. Sam covered her mouth, trying to deny the horror. She’d been listed for night shift this week—another team would have taken her and Jack’s place. She wondered if the captain was alive. Wondered if those who had taken her place had been killed.

Gabriel came back in. His face was white and his eyes were bleak. “I have to go.”

“Hanrahan?” Though Karl’s voice held no emotion, she could see the sympathy and concern in his brown eyes.

He nodded. “He was apparently in the building at the time of the explosion.”

“Keys,” Karl said, and threw them across. “And remember, they’ll have the blocks up. You won’t get near the place unless you’re in human form.”

Gabriel nodded. Sam scrambled to her feet, and his gaze swung to her, hot with a pain she couldn’t understand. “You stay here.”

“I’m coming with you.”

“No.” His voice cracked, as if he were barely controlling his pain. “It’s too dangerous for you there.”

Karl stood. “If he was dead, you would know.”

“That’s just it. I don’t—either way.”

He walked out the door. A few seconds later, an engine fired to life, and then a car sped away. She glanced across to Karl. “What was that all about? Why all the concern for Hanrahan, when the man has the rep for being a rule-obeying bastard who almost everyone hates?”

Karl considered her for a moment, then sighed. “Hanrahan’s not only Gabriel’s boss, he’s his brother. His twin brother.”

SAM BLINKED. NOT EVEN THE most irrational of minds would think that the two men came from the same family tree, let alone be brothers. “They can’t be. I mean, I could believe that Stephan might be, given their similar looks, but not Hanrahan.”

Karl’s smile was grim. “Hanrahan’s a shapeshifter. His true form is similar.”

r /> She remembered the close bond between Gabriel and Stephan—the feeling she’d had that the two men were related even though Gabriel had said they were little more than friends—then said slowly, “And Hanrahan is really Stephan?”

Karl merely raised an eyebrow, neither confirming nor denying her suspicion.