Penumbra (Spook Squad 3)

Mary’s gaze came back to Sam’s. “Because separately you were powerful, but together—I swear, heaven and earth trembled in fear of your wrath that day.”

Sam swallowed heavily but didn’t ask what had happened. Right now, she really didn’t want to know. It was enough to know that she was not what she’d presumed—and that the past she’d spent most of her life trying to uncover was one better left shuttered. And yet, now that she’d started down the path of remembering, there was no turning back. The military and their rising level of interest ensured that, if nothing else.

Besides, the dreams were becoming relentless. Remembering was being forced on her, whether she wanted it or not.

“If we were so powerful, Mary, how did they ever restrain us?”

Her smile was grim. “Simply by placing special pellets under your skins, and threatening the death of one if the other did anything out of place.”

She remembered the dream in which she and Joshua had been running up a slope on a moonless night. Remembered the promise he’d made as fire danced across his fingertips that soon they would have their revenge and be free.

He’d obviously found a way to remove the pellets and fulfill that promise.

“How did you escape the fire that destroyed the project, Mary?”

“I don’t know.” She frowned. “There was an explosion, and heat—horrible heat—and the next thing I remember I was outside on this grassy slope.” She rubbed her arms. “I think an angel saved me that day. I should have died with the rest of them. The nursery was the second place the fire hit.”

“And the first?”

“The arena where they used to train you both.”

Something in the way she said that scratched at Sam’s instincts. “Both of us? What about the others?”

“There were no others. Not in…” Mary hesitated and rubbed her forehead. “It still hurts if I try to say the name. Joshua told me it wouldn’t.”

Sam lightly squeezed the older woman’s free hand. “You don’t need to say the name, Mary. I know the project.” She hesitated. “So, Joshua and I were the only ones in Penumbra?”

Mary nodded. “There were others created. Lots of others. But none of them survived past toddlerhood. No one knew why, but I reckon it was because you were twins. You had each other, and you took care of each other. The other little ones had no one but themselves.”

Karl had said that walkers came as a pair. That they had to, or they could become lost in the very power they were destined to control. Was that the reason she and Joshua had survived when the others hadn’t? Because they were twins? Yet if Joshua was her base, why did she appear to have a connection with Gabriel?

And if Hopeworth had studied walkers, and were intermixing walker genes with those of other races, how could they not know that walkers had to come as a pair to survive?

“So we were the only twins they bred?”

“They didn’t breed you as twins. It just happened in utero. One whole became two.”

A chill went through Sam. Two halves of a whole. Joe had said that, too. Another clue she hadn’t taken note of.

God, who was he?

And was he friend or foe? Or something else altogether?

“So once the project was destroyed, you left?”

Mary nodded. “I went on to work for several adoption agencies.”

“And the military hasn’t tried to contact you before now?”

Mary shook her head. “Not until now.”

So what was different about now? But even as the question went through her mind, Sam remembered Blaine’s reaction as he’d come out of Wetherton’s office. Remembered his certainty that they’d met before, that she knew just who he was and what he did in the military.

She was the reason he’d come to see Mary.

He’d wanted to confirm his suspicions, and Mary was the one person left alive who seemed able to connect her with that red-haired child bred and raised in Hopeworth.

This meant Mary couldn’t stay here. Blaine would be back—and if there was one thing Sam was certain of, it was that she didn’t want Blaine anywhere near either her or Mary. And while Mary might be living in a fantasy world most of the time, what she did remember of the past was enough to confirm any suspicions Blaine might have. And once that happened, they would come after Sam in force. She’d been bred to be a weapon. It didn’t matter if her abilities were buried along with her memories. They’d want her back regardless.