Generation 18 (Spook Squad 2)

“It would be better if you had a thorough check at the hospital first—”

“No,” she said, more firmly this time. “I’m fine. Honestly.”

Neither of the two officers looked happy, but they packed up their bags and walked back to the ambulance.

Gabriel called a cab, then held out his hand, and Sam hesitated only briefly before accepting his assistance. She was still wobbly on her feet, no matter how fit she claimed to be.

The cab came within minutes. He helped her inside, climbed in beside her and punched her address into the onboard computer. Despite his earlier thoughts to the contrary, she asked no further questions. Maybe she’d finally given up.

It took half an hour to reach her apartment. Several SIU gray Fords were parked out front, but the police vehicles had gone. No lights shone in any of the windows above or below her apartment—perhaps the neighbors were getting used to being woken by bomb blasts in the middle of the night.

They made their way up the stairs. Sam showed little emotion as she stepped through the shattered doorway to her apartment.

He watched her limp to the bedroom, and then he moved across the living room to the window. Yet again she’d escaped a bomb blast by diving out into the night. He stopped and stared at the pavement below. At the very least, she should have broken a limb in a fall like that. But her bruising had come from the car, not the fall.

It would be interesting to see what O’Hearn came up with.

He turned from the window as two SIU men, bags in hand, filed out of the bedroom.

“Anything to be found, Burton?”

The big man shook his head. “The bomb was incendiary, as you can see by the flame damage. It was meant to kill rather than cause structural damage.”

“Send me a full report as soon as you can.”

The big man nodded. Gabriel tapped his wristcom and ordered a pickup on Dr. Jane Francis. Then he walked into the bedroom. Sam stood in the middle of the room, staring at the mess of soggy boxes almost blindly.

“Sometimes I wish I could step back in time,” she said, her voice a little distant and etched with pain. “Just go back to a time when my partner was my best friend, and I was just a plain old orphan, not some kind of freak.”

Her pain ran through him, a living thing he could almost taste and touch. He ached to reach out, to hold her. Remember Andrea, he told himself sternly. Don’t get involved too deeply.

“We all wish for things that cannot be,” he said, his voice sharp. “Sometimes we just have to accept fate and get on with it.”

She snorted softly. “Like you’re getting on with it, Assistant Director?”

He frowned. “What do you mean?”

She didn’t answer, simply shook her head and picked her way toward the window. “What do you want me to do about Dr. Francis?”

“I’ve ordered her to be picked up. She’ll be charged with attempted murder. You’ll have to write up the report as soon as you can.” He hesitated. “Was she responsible for bombing your apartment?”

Sam nodded. “Do you want a written report on my meeting with the general as well?”

“Yes, but you can give me the basics now, if you like.” One thing was for certain—he wasn’t sending her to watch over Jeanette Harris. She’d been through enough for one night.

She crossed her arms. To anyone else she might have looked calm. Casual, even. But her anger washed through his soul and burned him with guilt.

“Nine of the seventeen children placed into Greenwood’s care have Emma listed as their birth mother. She, and more than likely her sister, was a hybrid shifter-changer. One who can take on multiple forms of either.”

“I’d already guessed we were dealing with a hybrid.” Although he certainly hadn’t guessed that the hybrid might be capable of multiple animal as well as human identities. That was unheard of. Or so he’d thought.

“Did you also know that the purpose of Generation 18 was to design psychically endowed hybrids for the military to use as weapons?”

So Hopeworth was mucking about in the genetic sandbox. Maybe the kites were one of their creations. “Anything else?”

She was silent for several heartbeats, staring out the window. “I think there’ll be trouble with the general in the future.”

Her voice was almost subdued. He frowned. “What do you mean?”