"He's dead, so the restrictions on my mentioning his name have gone." His smile was cold. "Besides, it was never part of the agreement that I make things easy for you."
True. But it was occasionally nice to think things could be easy. Stupid, I know. "Then Hunt was simply a means of gathering information?"
"Yes."
"To top-secret military bases."
"And what they were doing. But also a means of keeping an eye on the various investigations, both military and civilian."
"I'm gathering the Directorate wasn't one of those - you already have a man in there."
He smiled. "And here I was thinking no one was aware Gautier was one of us."
"Jack's known about him for ages." Which wasn't exactly the truth, but it couldn't hurt having Misha think we were more aware of the situation than we truly were. "Tell me about Mrs. Hunt."
He simply smiled. Meaning he couldn't, or wouldn't.
"What pack does the woman impersonating Mrs. Hunt come from?"
Again with the silence. Obviously, Mrs. Hunt - or whoever she truly was - was someone we had to keep following.
"What about Kade, then? Why was his partner killed and he kept alive?"
"His partner was killed because they were getting too close to a source. Kade was kept alive simply because he had interesting skills."
He certainly did. "What pack has brown eyes, ringed by blue and amber?"
"The Helki pack, who live around Bendigo." His eyes were chips of glittery ice in the hazy light filling the room. "It's simply a matter of asking the right questions, Riley."
I sipped my beer. "What can you tell me about the Helki pack?"
"They're shifters."
I gave him a deadpan sort of look. "We're all shifters." Even if most shapeshifters actually denied the fact they came from the same base stock as weres.
"Yes, but not all weres are shapeshifters in the same way the Helki pack are."
I frowned. "Meaning?"
"Meaning, some can take different animal shapes, other than just a wolf. And some can take on other human shapes."
"You're kidding."
"No."
This had implications I didn't even want to contemplate. "I'm surprised the Helki pack haven't disappeared into the dark recesses of hidden labs."
His smile was grim. "Who's saying many of them haven't?"
We had to find this other damn lab! Had to stop them. "Is the woman I saw tonight a member of the Helki pack?"
His eyes gleamed with amusement. "I think you're beginning to catch on. She's a clone made using the genes of the Helki pack."
More damn clones. Was there a never ending supply of these bastards? "So was the original Mrs. Hunt human, and did she have the same weirdly colored eyes? If not, how did the replacement explain the sudden difference in eye color?"
"The original was human, and her eyes were very similar to a Helki's in color - brown ringed by blue. And the new Mrs. Hunt retreated from her friends and charities for three weeks. The only person who might have noticed the slight difference would have been her husband - except the two of them have been sexually alienated for some time. They still share a room, but not the same bed."
"So the original is dead?"