City of Light (Outcast 1)

“So if these drug trials are the one connection,” I said, “why hasn’t the company involved been investigated?”

“Because governments will always actively protect their assets and their asses, no matter what they might say otherwise,” Jonas commented, his expression not altering but sarcasm rich in his voice.

Nuri pushed away from the wall, her skirts swishing as she walked around me. The power rolling from her took away my breath, and the ghosts stirred uneasily. That they didn’t like her wasn’t surprising given the situation, but while I hated the fact that she’d contained me, for some strange reason I could hold no real dislike for her on a personal level. In fact, I had a suspicion she was probably the fairest—or, at least, the most nonjudgmental—human I was ever likely to meet.

“The company has been investigated—inconspicuously, of course,” she said. “And it has been cleared of any connection.”

“So you’re at a dead end, so to speak?”

“Yes.”

“Then how is my anonymity going to help you?” Though I tried to keep my voice even, I couldn’t help the edge in my tone. “I’m not an investigator, or even a mercenary. And why in hell would my night sight be considered a bonus in a city that is nothing but light?”

She paused behind me and my neck crawled. I very much suspected she could kill me without even touching me.

“What, exactly, you might be is a question still to be resolved.”

The chill running through me grew stronger. I resisted the urge to rub my arms and remained still.

“However,” she continued, “we would not need your help if it were merely a matter of hunting a sunlight-enabled killer.” She moved again, reappearing to the side of me. “What we appear to be dealing with is far more problematic than that.”

She might be one of the fairest humans I was ever likely to meet, but she was also one of the wordiest. And getting to the point quickly and precisely was apparently one power she didn’t have.

She stopped in front of me again and added, “Because despite Winter Halo being cleared, I still feel there is some connection between either the company or the government itself, and the wraith attack on Penny’s family and her subsequently being taken by them.”

Meaning, I gathered, that she’d seen it in her dreams. And no government in their right mind would act against a company in which they were invested based on the dreams of a witch. “Surely no one in the government would want the wraiths to gain sunlight immunity. That makes no sense.”

“Agreed,” Nuri said. “But I still believe there is some sort of connection between that company and the wraiths. We need you simply because we cannot infiltrate Winter Halo. We all have histories, and any security check done would flag those histories.”

Another chill went through me. A full security check might well flag more than mere history for me. “And did it not occur to you that I’m living where I am simply because I have no other choice?”

“Yes. But when I dreamed of your arrival, I foresaw that you have no history in this place—and that, as I said, is a bonus.”

“It’s also a problem.” My voice remained even despite the chill and the ever-increasing churning in my stomach. “I have no papers, I’m not chipped, and I don’t even have a credit account. Getting any sort of job is next to impossible.”

Nuri waved a hand. “We can set up a radio frequency ID easily enough.”

Perhaps, but it might take only a blood sample or a deep iris scan to reveal the truth about me. The destruction of everything related to the déchet program might have been complete in my bunker, but there’d been two others involved in our production, and who knew what files might have survived in them. Even if nothing had, it simply wasn’t worth the risk of exposure. No matter how deep the urge was to rescue those children.

“If you can set up a new identity for me, what’s stopping either of you from doing the same for yourselves?”

“The fact that our faces are known. We may be able to move around Central without problem, but presenting with a different ID will raise alarms in the wrong quarters.”

And what were the wrong quarters? Military or government? “Why would this company even employ someone like me? It’s not like I h

ave many skills.”

“From what Penny said, you can fight,” Nuri commented. “And that is all they require. That, and the fact you’re—at least in part—a cat shifter. Winter Halo is currently hiring security guards.”

I frowned. “And they’re specifically looking for cat shifters? Why?”

“We don’t know.”

There were entirely too many things they didn’t know, in my opinion. I switched my gaze to Jonas. “You didn’t answer my question before—why were you and Penny in the park? Where did you actually find her?”

He contemplated me for a moment, and then his gaze flicked to Nuri’s. I had an odd feeling the two were conversing, even though I could catch no hint of it in the emotive output coming from either of them. Did that mean they were both readers, or was this communication ability confined to the two of them? There’d been some evidence during the war that shifters could communicate with select members of their pack, although it wasn’t something I’d ever witnessed.

After a moment, Jonas’s gaze returned to mine. “I found her in Carleen.”