Memory Zero (Spook Squad 1)

Lyssa nodded. “How will we know when the power’s off?”

Sam’s smile was grim. “I intend to make a lot of noise once it is.” Hopefully that would draw Jack’s attention away from this area. “Once you hear it, you run, and you don’t look back.”

Again Lyssa nodded. Pain haunted her blue eyes.

“You okay?” she added.

Lyssa hesitated. “I scraped my belly pretty badly getting out.” She shifted her hand, revealing a large, bloody tear on the front of her shirt.

“But the baby’s okay?”

Lyssa smiled. “Oh, yes. The child is an ox. It’s just his mother who’s the weakling.”

“Will you make it up the hill?”

“I made it out of the vent, didn’t I?”

That she did. Sam squeezed her shoulder gently. “Just be careful. Once you’re clear of this area, contact Gabriel, not Stephan.”

Alarm flitted through Lyssa’s pale features. “Why?”

Sam hesitated. She had no right to tell Lyssa about the bomb or the shapeshifter—such information was better coming from someone close. “There have been several attempts on your husband’s life. Gabriel has him hidden, and only he knows how to contact him.”

The tension in Lyssa’s body eased a little. “I know they’d planned for such an event. I’ll contact Gabriel first.”

“What about my husband?” Jan asked softly. “He should know I’m free, before he’s forced to do something by that … that monster.”

Karl had already been forced down that path. “Wait and see what Gabriel says.”

Jan nodded. Sam rose and nudged the unconscious felon with her foot. “If he moves, if he even blinks, shoot him. Don’t hesitate.”

Tension leapt into the silence, sizzling through the night, but it was coming mainly from Jan rather than Lyssa. The younger woman might look frail, but Sam had a suspicion she was far more dangerous than she looked.

“Good luck, ladies. Hopefully, I’ll see you both a bit later.”

“May fortune smile kindly on your ventures tonight,” Lyssa said softly.

Sam smiled. The God of good fortune had looked the other way her entire life, so why should that change now? “Thanks,” she said, and wondered, as she stepped away, how neither Gabriel nor Stephan had noticed the change in Lyssa. Or had they, and put it down to the hormones of pregnancy? Had it been only her presence that had revealed Suzy’s true nature—if indeed the shifter was Suzy, as she suspected?

She moved back to the corne

r, then stopped to study the six buildings critically.

The minute she stepped out into the open, the monitors would have her. And if she didn’t do it soon, Jack would send people to look for her.

The fastest route was a direct route. By the time Jack realized she wasn’t actually going for a car, she’d hopefully have figured out some way to get rid of the generator. After taking a deep breath to calm the nerves fluttering in her stomach, she ran out of the shadows and into the open. The monitor failed to respond for a second; then she heard the hum as it clicked into action and began tracking her movements. With a bit of luck, Jack would think she’d come from the main doorway.

She ran across to the nearest building and stopped in the shadows. Her heart raced as fast as a steam train, and her breaths were little more than short gasps—from fear, more than exertion. In the distance, thunder rumbled. Behind that came the pounding of distant rain. Closer, the soft crunch of gravel as someone walked toward her. To her left, on the far side of the nearest building, the soft exhale of air and a bittersweet smell began to taint the storm-held freshness. Someone was smoking rat-weed, the newest sensation on the drug scene. He was the one to go for—the drug, for all its much vaunted heightening of senses, often had the opposite effect.

The footsteps drew closer. Time to go. Keeping to the shadows as much as possible, she ran across to the next building. With her back pressed hard against the wall, she waited. A man appeared, and then stopped. He studied the shadows where she’d stood only moments before, then raised a hand to his ear.

“She’s not here.”

So they definitely were tracking her. The man turned, staring straight at her. She froze, barely daring to breathe.

“I’m telling you, she’s not here,” he repeated.

How could he not see her, when she could see him as plain as day? What game was Jack playing now?