“Oh, wow,” I said, more than a little shocked. Though once I thought about it, I had zero doubt that the ice-calm security guy could break fingers without batting an eyelash.
Her mouth pursed slightly in annoyance, and I got the sense it was at herself. For getting caught? Somehow I could totally believe that would irk this woman. Irked looked a lot more natural on her than the verge-of-tears thing. Whatever was going on had to be huge if it pushed her to that point.
“And your bosses are mad you got caught?” I asked, trying to put the pieces together. Yet I figured they’d have to be really mad for her to be this freaked. Surely there was more to it.
She gave a low snort. “They don’t even know about that. It’s…other stuff I recently discovered about them.” Sighing, she shook her head. “I can’t go back.” Her eyes went to mine. “Please, I really need to go. And you need to be far away from me.”
I stubbornly didn’t get out of the Jeep. “What’s your name?”
A flicker of exasperation lit her eyes. “Heather,” she said, pointedly not giving a last name.
I didn’t bother asking for it. “I’m Angel Crawford, but I guess you know that already.”
“Yeah. I do.” Her gaze dropped from mine.
“Tell me who you work for.” I didn’t make it a question or request.
She grimaced. “Saberton Corporation.”
I didn’t expect that answer. “I don’t understand. Why the hell would Saberton want pictures of me?” But then my thick-headed brain decided to wake up. “Wait, they do defense contract stuff, don’t they?” A chill swept through me. Did this have anything to do with Kristi Charish’s Zoldiers project? It had to. “Do you know why they wanted pics of me?”
Heather shook her head. “Not just you. Pietro Ivanov and pretty much anyone associated with him.”
“What do you know about Pietro…and me?” I asked warily.
She took a deep breath as if clinging to calm by her fingernails. “I know what you are,” she said, voice cracking slightly. “And I’m leaving because I don’t agree with Saberton’s philosophy, especially when it comes to using your kind.” Her eyes flicked toward me. “Zombies.”
Yikes. I knew Dr. Charish had been dealing with some government or corporate group when she had me as a test subject. Was that Saberton? Were they interested in her zombie-soldier idea? “You know a lot of zombies?” I asked, still watching her.
“Met my first a couple of years ago. John Kang,” she said to my surprise. Kang, the first zombie who I knew was a zombie. “He was my best friend, hands down,” she continued, surprising me even more, especially with the depth of sincerity in her voice. Her mouth tightened. “Saberton wanted him in their pocket because of all his contacts and connections. They wanted me to set him up to, ah, encourage his cooperation.”
“Connections like Dr. Sofia Baldwin?” I asked, cocking my eyebrow in her direction. Before her death, Dr. Baldwin had been working to develop fake brains that zombies could survive on instead of human brains.
Heather gave a little nod, confirming my suspicion. This was getting more and more interesting. If interesting meant holy shit this is seriously messed up.
“I knew Sofia,” I said. “She, uh, did a lot of zombie research.” I paused. “They’re both dead, you know—Kang and Sofia. Murdered.”
Heather’s good hand tightened on the barrel of the shotgun. “I know,” she said, grief slashing across her face. “God, the only possible good thing that came out of Kang’s death was that it happened before Saberton had the chance to get their hooks into him or find out anything he knew.”
I struggled to put it all together. From what I’d seen, Kang hadn’t held a Pietro-level of power, but he certainly had influence among local zombies, especially those who weren’t associated with Pietro. Ed had killed Kang, but I wasn’t sure if Charish had specifically ordered that hit or if he’d taken it upon himself. However, she’d openly admitted to killing Sofia. If Charish had been working with Saberton at the time, surely they’d been pissed at her about both losses.
“Were you working with Kristi Charish?” I asked.
Heather twitched, almost as if she was recoiling at the name. She obviously knew who Kristi Charish was. “Not…directly,” she answered.
I frowned. “What about Philip?” Crap, I didn’t even know his last name.
But again she apparently knew who I was talking about. The corners of her mouth turned down, and her brows drew together. “Yeah. Known him about a year. Gung ho company man.”
That meant he’d been working for Saberton for at least six months before Charish forced me to turn him into a zombie. That made it pretty evident that Saberton had already been involved with Charish at the time she’d kidnapped me.
“He’s a zombie now. An experiment gone bad,” she continued with a shake of her head. “Haven’t dealt with him much since.” Her gaze rested on me as though waiting for me to say something.
Well, I didn’t know how much she already knew, but I wasn’t about to confirm that I was the one who made Philip a zombie. “Why are you freaked out about leaving?” I asked instead. “Or is this one of those deals where you don’t simply walk away?”
Her mouth twisted. “It’s one of those things where you know too much, don’t like what you know, know they’ll kill you over it, so you run and hide and figure they’ll find you sooner or later.” She shook her head. “And they’re on to me, so it’s going to be sooner if I don’t get out of here.”
Silent, I considered her plight. I didn’t know a damn thing about this woman except that supposedly she wanted to quit this evil company for somewhat vague reasons. But she knew Kang, and she definitely seemed upset about his death. “What if someone could help you?” I found myself asking.