Generation 18 (Spook Squad 2)

“It is you who have done the calling, Samantha. I merely answer.”

“Then show yourself.”

He smiled, a sensation that ran like fire through her mind. “When you are ready to see me, you will.”

“More riddles.”

“No. A truth you are not ready to accept.”

It made no sense. Nothing this man said made any sense.

“Tell me your problem, Samantha. Is it the kites?”

“No.” She hesitated. “Did you send the kite after the five scientists?”

His smile rippled through her like shadowed sunshine. “No. I may have helped make them, but I do not always control them. Not yet.” He paused. “You will regret saving the scientists.”

“Why?”

“Because of their past. They deserve no future for what they have done. Their death is long overdue.”

“It all ties in with the mysterious Penumbra project, doesn’t it? You’re the one who originally tried to destroy it.” She hesitated again. “It’s my duty to protect Haynes and Cooper, you know.”

He said nothing for a long moment, but his thoughts continued to circle. She could almost see them, a blaze of unhappiness as bright as the sun.

“Though I rejoice their deaths, as I said, I am not the one killing the scientists.”

“Who, then?”

“Hopeworth has realized that their reconditioning is not as strong as they thought. You are not the only one Allars has talked to.”

“If Hopeworth was behind the murders of the scientists, why, then, did they send those cars out to collect Allars and the others?”

“Because it’s far easier to make people disappear once they are behind the walls of Hopeworth.”

That, at least, made sense. “If our murderer has talked to Allars, why wouldn’t she have killed him? Especially since Haynes and his mates were on the project that Emma was involved in?”

“Sometimes it is better to leave a foe alive.” He smiled. “Of course, it could also be that he was neither creator nor spawn.”

Maybe. “Is that why you’ve left Gabriel alive? Because sometimes it is better to do so?”

“In this case, most definitely.” The fierce sunshine of his unseen smile rippled through her again. “Stern plays an important part in our future. As much as I want to destroy him, I can’t.”

Our future? She and this stranger had some sort of future together? Now, that was a scary thought.

“These questions are not the reason you called me here, Samantha. What really troubles you?”

“I’m selling my apartment.” Why she came out with that, she wasn’t entirely sure. It was a guess, maybe. This stranger seemed to know an awful lot about a past she couldn’t remember. Maybe he’d also know an awful lot about the apartment she’d inherited.

His essence stopped moving. A slither of surprise ran round her. “That is your choice, of course, but can I ask why?”

She tilted her head and contemplated the shadow that was Joe Black. “People seem to like bombing it. You gave it to me, didn’t you?”

“Perhaps.”

“Why?”

“Because I could.”