Chapter 8

One of the guards stepped forward and held up a hand. “Present for ID confirmation immediately.”

The second guard produced a scanner. I stopped, pulled up my left sleeve, and ran the RFID chip across it. She studied the screen for several seconds, then nodded and stepped out of my way.

One barrier down. A ton to go.

I continued on. The doors swished and light swept my length as I stepped through them. No alarms went off, so I obviously passed the bioscan.

The foyer was a vast space that was all metal, glass, and polished concrete. There were another half a dozen guards in here, and all of them armed. Despite the current penchant for recruiting orange-haired cat shifters to be guards, four of the six here were male and, from the scents I was picking up, human. Maybe on the ground floor, they actually deferred to experience and capability rather than looks.

I threw my pack into one of the plastic tubs, then stepped through a second scanner. This one, I knew from Sharran’s memories, checked for any sort of weapons, be they metal or glass. Once my pack had been scanned, I slung it over my shoulder and headed for the elevators. I didn’t look anyone in the eye; didn’t even glance around, as much as I wanted to. I had to keep in character, and Sharran was, unfortunately, a bit of a loner.

“Floor,” a metallic voice said as I stepped into the elevator.

“Three.”

The doors closed and within seconds I was on the third floor. I paused in the bright hallway, looking right and left. This level held the changing rooms, the security monitoring section, and the personnel department. The entire floor, aside from the changing rooms that were situated in the right corner of the building, was a maze of glass partitions. There was no privacy here; not only could everyone see you, but there were security cams mounted with movement sensors on every glass corner.

I spun on my heel and made my way through the glass corridors to the changing room. No one appeared to pay me any attention, but the cameras tracked my progress—I could hear the electronic buzz of their movements.

No one here looks happy, Bear commented.

No, they didn’t. But then, if the bits and pieces I’d been getting from Charles were any indication, early starts and late nights were the norm in this place. I had no idea if it was the same elsewhere in Central, but it would certainly explain the general air of malaise so evident on this floor. Long hours were not only tiring, but meant fewer chances of seeing your lover, or family, or even of having a life. It made me wonder yet again how Sal had stood living in this city. He and I might have been bred to obey, but we’d also been given the luxury of thought and emotion, as well as a love of life, even if the latter had been unintentional by our creators. The longer I spent in Central, the more it seemed to me that its people had forsaken freedom in exchange for security. And while I could understand both humans and shifters making that choice, given the triple threats of vampires, Others, and rifts, Sal had been an assassin with salamander in his blood—a creature of forest and shadows. He had no need for any of this.

But again, the choice might not have been his to make. And while I certainly had no regrets about killing him, a glimmer of sadness resurfaced. Maybe being forced to live in a city of endless light and little freedom had changed him as much as that rift.

There were three others in the women’s changing room. Two ignored me, and the third—a tall, thin woman with a mane of black and orange hair—looked decidedly unhappy to see me.

“You just lost me five credits.” Her voice was as tart as her expression. “I was betting you wouldn’t be back.”

I half shrugged as I frantically searched Sharran’s memories for her name. Rae . . . no, Raedella. She and Sharran had worked together on numerous occasions, but weren’t exactly friends. The taller woman was something of a prankster . . . and Sharran’s nervous nature tended to make her the ideal target.

I let my gaze skitter away from hers and mumbled, “Can’t afford to lose the job.”

Raedella snorted. “That’s not what you were saying last night.”

I had no idea what Sharran had said last night; it wasn’t in any of the memories I’d plucked from her. So I simply shrugged again and walked over to Sharran’s locker. It was a couple down from the other two women, but they didn’t even look around. And I was fine with that. The fewer people I interacted with, the less chance there was of someone sensing something out of kilter.

I stripped, then grabbed a guard’s uniform hanging from the hook inside the locker. Not only did the almost overpowering scent of flowery musk cling to the material, but the undertones of sweat and fear did as well. Sharran had obviously changed and run last night, and had forgotten to dump the uniform in the laundry chute. My nose wrinkled in distaste at the thought of wearing it, but I had no other choice. Fresh uniforms were only provided if one was returned.

Once I was dressed, I grabbed the weapon—some sort of Taser by the look of it—and strapped it on, then closed the locker and walked across to the allocations board to see where Sharran had been positioned for the night. Not unexpectedly, she was back on the tenth floor.

“Well, well,” Raedella said, stopping so close behind me her breath stirred the ends of my hair. Had I been myself rather than Sharran, I would have elbowed her. Hard. “Looks like you got lucky again.”

I grunted and ducked away from her. She laughed, a quick sound that held a hint of callousness. “But perhaps the ghost will decide you’re really not worth the effort of biting.”

And perhaps she needs a little ghostly interaction herself, Cat mused. Shall we cause a little mischief?

I barely managed to contain my smile. Oh, most definitely.

I walked out and left them to it. I’d almost reached the elevators when there was a high-pitched screech that was both fury and fear. People looked up from their glass boxes, but the only ones who went to investigate were two women from the security center.

Cat and Bear joined me in the elevator, their laughter filling the air and making me smile again. They didn’t exactly provide full details of what they’d done, but it involved various items in the changing rooms suddenly gaining flight and a lot of white talc.

“Floor,” a metallic voice demanded as the doors closed.

“Ten.”

The elevator zoomed up. The first thing that struck me when the doors opened again was the hush. Not that the third floor had, in any way, been rowdy, but there’d at least been the murmur of conversations, the whir of cameras, and the electric buzz of the various other machines on the floor.

None of that was here; even the air con was silent, though a light breeze played with the ends of my hair, so it was obviously on.

I headed left. The lights were harsher—brighter—up here, but that was no surprise if there was someone using a light screen to hide him- or herself. Lights with this sort of output would definitely make shielding easier. It was also a whole lot colder up here, but given this floor supposedly had a lot of laboratories, it once again wasn’t all that surprising. The temperature in all the military labs I’d been into had always been set several degrees lower than what I would have called comfortable, though no one had ever explained why. Maybe they’d simply wanted to ensure that no one fell asleep on the job.

Cat, Bear, do you want to have a look around the floor? See if there’s anyone else here?

They raced off. I continued walking down the hall, heading for the security office at the north end of the building. Which was an odd place for it in my opinion. Surely it would have been better positioned closer to both the elevators and the emergency exits, so that they could get to either faster if there was a problem?

A woman looked around as I entered the small office; she was short, round, with spiky orange hair and long, sharp nails. There was nothing in Sharran’s memories to give me any idea who she was.

“Sharran,” she said, voice neutral, flat. Not the friendliest of souls, obviously. “I’m surprised to see you after the fuss you raised last night.”

“Need the job.” I sat down at the spare console and scanned myself in. Light screens flared to life in front of me, a checkerboard pattern of various-sized laboratories that were as empty as the halls. If they were doing any ongoing testing within those rooms, then it certainly wasn’t evident. “Besides, it might be your turn tonight; let’s see how calm you are when some bastard dry-humps you.”

Surprise flitted across her features. I cursed inwardly. Sharran the mouse wouldn’t have bitten back like that.

“I’m thinking the ghosts have no taste for me,” she said. “Been on this floor many a time, and have never been attacked.”

“Until last night, I was saying the same thing,” I muttered, and ducked my gaze away from hers.

She continued to study me, her stare a weight I could feel. But after a few seconds, she returned her attention to the screens in front of her. I did the same. Not that there was anything to see; Kendra had been right. This was a cushy job.

Cat and Bear returned; the floor was as empty as it appeared on the screen. I frowned, wondering why when everyone else who worked at Winter Halo seemed to be doing long, long hours. It wasn’t as if the labs were old or in need of refurbishing—not if the equipment I was seeing on the screens was anything to go by.

Time drifted by with agonizing slowness. My spiky-haired companion did the first hourly check, and I did the second. My body practically hummed with tension as I walked through the various corridors, checking that doors were locked and the labs still empty. Nothing happened. Not then, and not for the next six hours.

Maybe Sharran hadn’t passed the psychic “sniff” test—if that was indeed what the first assault was all about.

One of the movement sensors on a subscreen flashed red. I leaned and switched the screen to full-size. The alarm had come from the lobby area, but there was no one there. No one the cameras could pick up, anyway.

“Problem?” My companion leaned sideways on her chair and studied my screen.

“Probably nothing,” I said, even as intuition was whispering that this was it. This was when the attack would happen. “But I’d better go check.”

“Yeah. You might as well do the rest of the floor while you’re at it. I’ll take the final one.”

I nodded and rose. Cat and Bear danced around me, excited by the prospect of action—only that wasn’t on our agenda right now. None of us could react in any way, simply because Sharran wouldn’t have done so.

Bear’s energy touched mine. But if there is a light shield in use, Cat and I will be able to see past it. That will help, won’t it?

Yes. If nothing else, it would confirm whether the person behind these attacks was the same person Sal had reported to—and argued with—the time both Cat and Bear followed him into this place.

I strode down the hall, one hand on the butt of the Taser, even though I didn’t expect to get the chance to use it. As I neared the lobby entrance, energy and awareness trailed across my skin. It wasn’t the ghosts; the energy was too sharp, too bright. Behind it was the scent of deep forests, dark satin, and something else. Something unexpected and icy. Sal’s scent, but also the scent of the person who’d watched us when we went to the restaurant to meet Keller.

Remember, I said to my two little companions, no reaction, no matter what happens.

Cat’s energy touched mine. But if he hurts you?

I’ll be okay. They need me. This is all about them getting blood and me getting into the upper levels. Nothing else matters right now.

She wasn’t happy, but both she and Bear promised to behave. I drew in a breath, tasting that familiar and yet alien scent once again, then brushed my left wrist across the scanner and entered the foyer. As I did, something sharp pricked the back of my neck. Dart, I thought, even as I instinctively brushed a hand upward. Only there was no dart. I frowned; then dizziness hit and I stumbled, my knees buckling slightly as an odd warmth began to flood down my spine.

Whatever I’d been hit with, it was fast-acting. But what scared me was the fact that I was reacting to it. I was a lure, designed to be immune to all known drugs and poisons. Even those that did affect me did so long after the drug would have killed anyone else—it gave me time to do my job, escape, and then take the cure. But I’d been created a long time ago, and this drug, whatever it was, had obviously been developed in the years after the war. I had no immunity to it. None at all.

I stumbled to the wall and tried to remain upright. But my legs gave way and I found myself on my knees. Everything was spinning, and an odd buzzing seemed to fill my ears—I couldn’t hear, could barely see, and my breath was short, sharp pants of air. No wonder Kendra had quit; I’d been expecting this attack, but it nevertheless scared the hell out of me.

Bear, connect, I said silently. I need to see.

His energy instantly whipped through me, connecting us on a level far deeper than mere speech, because when he pulled free, the connection lingered, allowing me to see and hear through his eyes and ears. It was a connection that wasn’t without some danger, because if we held it too long, it could drain us both.

But I needed to see who was behind all this for myself.

The door behind us opened and a tall, thin-faced man with shadowed skin, dark hair, and magnetic blue eyes stepped through. Both Bear and Cat stirred uneasily. This was the man Sal had met, and one they didn’t like the feel of. I couldn’t say I blamed them. Even in my disconnected state, there was something very cold—and very alien—about him.

There was a slight shimmer around his body, which was the only indication that there was a light shield in play. Which meant neither the cameras nor my spiky-haired companion would see him. They’d only see me, collapsed against the wall.

Even so, why didn’t my fellow guard come running to help? Or at least raise the alarm? She had to at least see I was in trouble.

Bear drifted backward as the stranger approached, not only wanting to keep his distance, but also not willing to risk the stranger sensing him. We knew one of Sal’s partners was an earth witch, so it was more than possible that the merging of their DNA could have passed on the ability to sense the dead. Just because Sal apparently hadn’t been able to didn’t mean this man wouldn’t.

He pulled a small medikit out of his pocket and undid the zip as he knelt beside me. He chose a syringe, then grabbed my arm and quickly—but professionally—found a vein and filled several blood collection tubes. He briefly put pressure on the site and then sprayed the area with something that stung like blazes. Within seconds there was little evidence of needle entry on my arm.

He carefully placed the blood samples in another kit, then took a small knife out of the first. After spraying it with sterilizer, he pushed my head to one side to reveal my neck. With little flourish, he made two small cuts near my throat. As blood began to ooze down my neck, he replaced the knife, zipped up both kits, and walked away. It was all very quick and efficient, which I guess was to be expected, given he’d been doing this for at least a couple of years now.

Bear, break the contact. I need you and Cat to follow him. I hesitated as Bear’s energy whipped back through me and broke our connection. The dizzy confusion hit full force again and it was all I could do to add, But be careful. Don’t take any risks.

They raced off after the stranger. As much as I wanted to do nothing more than drop into the healing state and chase the drug from my system, I couldn’t. Not just because I had to react as Sharran would react, but because I could barely concentrate. All I could do was wait for whatever I’d been injected with to wear off. It took another five minutes for my limbs to start obeying my orders, and even then I still felt very shaky. I leaned back against the wall and slid the rest of the way to the floor. My head was still pounding and the brightness of the lights was making my eyes water, but my heart had stopped racing and my mind was at least a little clearer. I closed my eyes and concentrated on healing myself.

It didn’t take all that long to erase whatever the hell it was they’d used on me, but I didn’t immediately get up. The cameras were still on me and my companion might be watching, so when I did finally rise, I made a show of rising shakily and then stumbling back to the security office.

And discovered my companion was out of it.

I stepped closer, swept her hair away from the back of her neck, and saw a small needle mark. Which was odd, given they’d gone to the trouble of hiding any needle evidence from my arm. But this was obviously why there were no collaborating reports; they just knocked both guards out. It did, however, still leave the question of why any of the secondary guards didn’t at least report the loss of consciousness.

I moved across to my station and hit the rewind button on the foyer screen. Just as Kendra said, the playback showed little more than me entering the foyer, checking the surrounds, and then moving on. Maybe this was why the attack hadn’t happened earlier in the night; maybe they needed to record the material that would later be spliced into the live recording.

The other guard began showing signs of recovery. I moved back to the door, being careful to keep out of the line of sight of the cams in the hall.

“What on earth . . . ?” she muttered.

“Did you see it?” I said, forcing fear into my voice as I stepped forward and gripped her arm tightly. “It happened again. The bastard attacked me!”

She shook my grip from her arm and scooted her chair away from me. “I didn’t see a damn thing. And why are you even here? Go downstairs and report it, and get a grip, for God’s sake.”

“You didn’t see it?” I all but wailed. I had no idea if I was overdoing it, but Sharran did seem the type to wail.

“I didn’t see it last night, and nothing has changed tonight.” She glanced at the time. “Go report it. I’ll finish up here.”

“But it happened in the lobby and it might come back!”

She growled low in her throat, then thrust upright. “I’ll fucking escort you. But I better not get into trouble for leaving my station, or there’ll be hell to pay.”

She pushed past roughly and I scampered after her. Of course, nothing else happened. When the elevator arrived, I thanked her profusely and stepped inside. Once the doors had shut, I closed my eyes and released a breath. Playing someone close to neurotic wasn’t exactly easy.

“Floor,” the metallic voice said.

“Um, three.”

Once I was there, I stumbled across to the main security office to report what had happened. Interestingly, few of those who remained in the glass maze even bothered looking at me. These attacks had obviously become so regular they were no longer of any interest.

A stern-faced woman in her mid-fifties looked up as I pushed the door open, and her expression switched to one of frustration. She slammed her palms against the desk and pushed upright. “I wish the bastards upstairs would actually do something about these damn attacks. This is getting ridiculous.” She walked over and placed a comforting arm around my shoulders. “You okay, love?”

I nodded. “Just shaken.”

“As you would be.” She stepped back and eyed the wound. “Report to medical and get that attended to. Then you can go home.”

I glanced at her, unable to hide my surprise. “Really? My shift hasn’t officially finished yet.”

“It will be by the time you go to medical and fill in the required report.” She hesitated. “Are you planning to stay on in the job, or leave like some of the others? Because I’ll need to pass that decision on to personnel.”

“Staying,” I said. “I need the job.”

“Good lass.” She patted my shoulder lightly. “Rest up, and I’ll see you back here on Friday.”

“But I need the money—” And time was tight.

“It’s full pay,” the woman said. “So just rest up and relax.”

I couldn’t exactly fight the decision given Sharran wouldn’t have, so I thanked her profusely and then headed down to medical. It turned out she was right about the amount of time it would take—it was nearly an hour and a half later by the time I’d been patched up, done the incident report, and left the building.

I sent a silent message to Cat and Bear, then headed back to Sharran’s place. I stripped and chucked the tunic in the laundry chute, then stepped into the shower to wash away the odorous scents that clung to my skin. Once I’d redressed in my own clothes, I checked the autocook to see what was available, finding a surprising range of breads and proteins. It might be the oldest machine I’d ever seen, but at least it was well stocked. I ordered a stew and toast, and the rich smell of meat and cooking bread soon filled the room, making my mouth water in anticipation. It had been a long night, and the only break guards were allowed was the occasional bathroom stop.

Cat and Bear still hadn’t returned by the time I finished, so I sent them another message telling them to wake me on their return, and settled down to get some sleep.

The sting of their excitement woke me a few hours later. They swirled around me, both of them talking at the same time, creating a whirlpool of sound, color, and trepidation.

They might have liked the assignment, but they hadn’t actually liked what they’d seen in Winter Halo.

I waited until they’d calmed down, then said, “Where did that stranger go?”

Images flashed into my mind. The stranger had disposed of the light shield in the elevator and gone up to the twenty-seventh floor. It was another floor of laboratories, but this time all of them were filled with people. He walked into one labeled SCREENING and handed the medikit containing the blood samples to the technician, then left and made his way to the thirtieth—and top—floor. Here he walked down another of those solid corridors with only the one exit. This led into an office that dominated one-half of the entire floor—and one in which he was the only occupant.

“What else was on that floor, then?” I asked, surprised.

Coming to that, Cat said.

More images rolled. The stranger pulled up a light screen and made a call. The woman on the other end had broad features, dark hair and skin, and eyes that were the green of a newly unfurled leaf. It was a startling combination, and one I’d seen before. Not just because this was the woman I’d followed into the false rift that had led me into Government House, but somewhere else. Somewhere deep in the past.

I frowned, but the information of where remained elusive.

“What did they talk about?”

He was asking about the break-in at Government House, and whether the rift should be dismantled and moved, Bear said.

“And are they planning to do either?”

No, Cat said. The woman said security had been tightened and that she’d retune the rift to only allow both of them to use it for the time being.

Which meant any possibility of doing a search of that building via the rift was now out of the question. Not that I actually thought the children were being kept at Government House, despite the fact that the Carleen ghosts had said the government ATV that had collected them from Carleen had been headed toward Central.

“Did they talk about anything else?”

She asked about the dissections.

I blinked, even as a sick feeling began to churn my gut. “What dissections?”

Neither spoke. They simply showed me. On the twenty-ninth floor, there was a room that held six gleaming metal tables. On each of these lay an orange-haired woman. They were all hooked up to mediscan units that were now acting as their hearts and their lungs. Each woman had had her skull removed and a series of electrodes and probes attached directly to her brain. They were all dead; it was only the machines keeping their bodies alive.

I closed my eyes and took a deep, shuddering breath. I knew well enough just how the déchet had been created; knew because I’d witnessed scenes not unlike this in the lead-up to the war, as human scientists extracted and then refined the cells and neurons responsible for both shifting and psychic skills.

But that had been well over a hundred years ago, and it was a sight I’d hoped had been relegated to pages of history and long forgotten.

If it was happening here, in Central, then it all but confirmed that at least one of Sal’s partners had been a scientist working on the déchet program. There was no other way they could have gotten to the extraction point so quickly.

“Were there only six of them?”

On the tables, yes, Cat said. There were five others in holding cells.

“Alive?”

Yes, but they looked drugged. And there was one empty cell.

Which meant those five were probably awaiting their turn for dissection. It also explained the somewhat random pattern of attacks. They obviously only went after a fresh subject when there was space freed either in the cells or on the tables.

“What about the rest of that floor? Any more horrors?”

More laboratories, but none of the machines that helped make us, either on that floor or others.

Meaning no in vitro equipment or incubators. And that meant if they were creating new beings, they were doing it off-site. Which was damn frustrating, but not unexpected. Nuri had already theorized as much.

“So, what was on the rest of the top floor?”

Once again, they didn’t reply; they just showed me.

The rest of the floor was empty, except for the existence of two not-so-minor items.

The biggest false rifts I’d seen yet.