Penumbra (Spook Squad 3)

“He said it was all right to talk. He said they couldn’t stop me anymore.” Fear briefly crossed her half-frozen features. “Maybe that’s why he came. He knew.”

“He who? I really need to know which one of them, Mary, so we can stop him.”

Mary frowned again, then eventually said, “The general. It was the general.”

“Blaine? Or Lloyd?” It had to be one of them. Lloyd was an obstetrician, and apparently in charge of the Hopeworth breeding pens. Blaine had been the man behind the experiments and training, and maybe even the whole Penumbra project.

But if it was Blaine, which of the Blaines had been here? The one she’d met in Wetherton’s car, or the one who’d been in Wetherton’s office?

And did it actually matter? Just because she hadn’t felt anything evil about the first Blaine didn’t mean he wasn’t.

“It was Blaine.” Mary shuddered. “We used to call him the day shadow. Always creeping about, he was, and harder to spot than a ghost at dusk.”

“Did he say anything?”

“Didn’t get a chance, did he? He saw Joshua and scooted out of here as fast as he could.”

“So he recognized Josh?”

Mary smiled. “You always used to call him that when you were angry with him. It was like you couldn’t get his full name out fast enough.”

Her dreams had never shown her angry at the man who was supposedly her brother. The only emotions in the dreams were fear and longing—fear of what the scientists were doing, and of what Joshua was going to do. And longing to be free, to have what she’d never had—a family, friends. Things she still didn’t possess.

“Did we fight often?”

Mary shrugged. “You were as different as night and day, you two. You were always the fiery one, the one quick to judge. He was more…careful.” She looked away for a minute, her gaze distant. “But for all that, I always thought he was the more dangerous of the two of you. He never seemed to have limits of any kind. And he did some nasty things.”

“We both did,” she said softly.

Mary’s gaze met hers again, and she raised a slightly shaking hand to brush Sam’s skin with dry fingertips. “In many ways, you were always the good one. What you did, you had to do.”

Her words made Sam remember the pin Joe had given her. Had it been more of a clue than she realized? Had the abstract man and woman on its surface—one light, one dark—represented her and the man who was supposedly her twin?

Had Joe been trying to tell her that he knew not only who she was, but who her brother was? And did that mean he was a friend or foe? For sure, he’d warned her of trouble more than once, but that didn’t mean she could trust him. Hell, for all she knew, Joe might be Blaine in disguise.

“Mary, was there anyone on the project who went by the name of Joe Black?”

Mary frowned. “Not that I remember. But then, I didn’t know everyone on the project, because I was basical

ly confined to the nursery and housing areas. Nor did I know all the secret names you two called yourselves. Only some.”

“Can you remember some of the other names?”

“Not really. I only remembered Josephine and Joshua because those were the names you used most often.”

“What about Sethanon? Is that one of them? Or maybe the name of someone who worked there?”

“Sethanon?” Her frown deepened. “I don’t think there was anyone on the project called that. It’s such an odd name that surely I’d remember it. But Joshua was once caught reading a book by that name, I’m sure.”

A chill went through her. “Sethanon is a book title?”

“Yeah. I caught him reading it well before they did, and I warned him. But he took no notice.”

“So we weren’t allowed to read fiction?”

“No, only what they gave you. On technologies, weapons, stuff like that.” Mary shrugged. “No one ever knew how he got that book. When they took it off him, he got mad.” She looked away again. “Joshua would never have hurt me, I knew that, but that day I was afraid. And not just of him, but of both of you.”

Sam raised her eyebrows. “Why both of us?”