Penumbra

by Keri Arthur

  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.

  Maybe that was why Joshua had come here, to give Mary permission to tell all. Maybe he was trying to speed up Sam’s memory so that she could escape Hopeworth’s clutches once again.

  She glanced around as Gabriel walked into the room. “Any success?”

  He shook his head. “I saw a crow fly away from the window, but by the time I shifted shape and flew after it, its lead was too great.”

  Joshua in crow form? Or Joe? And if it had been Joe, what did he want with Mary? “I wouldn’t have thought a crow would be faster than a hawk.”

  “Neither would I.” He stopped beside the sofa and gave Mary a smile. “Are you all right?”

  “I don’t know you,” Mary said, somewhat crossly. She glanced at Sam. “Do I know him?”

  “This is my new partner, Mary. His name is Gabriel, and he’s going to arrange a nice place for you to stay while we track down Blaine.”

  Gabriel raised his eyebrows, but he didn’t refute the statement. “Somewhere nice and safe.”

  The mobile half of Mary’s face lit up. “A holiday would be nice. Gets boring, this place does.”

  Sam patted the older woman’s knee and rose. “We’ll just go talk to the nurses and arrange it, then.”

  “And lock the damn window,” Mary said. “I don’t want that bastard coming back to visit me while you’re gone.”

  Sam obeyed, locking the window and closing the curtains for good measure. When they were out in the hall, Gabriel asked, “What was that all about?”

  “Mary was screaming because she saw Blaine.” Sam glanced back at the room to ensure Mary wasn’t moving around, then looked back at him. “And if Blaine was visiting her, it’s because he wanted to confirm his suspicions about me.”

  Gabriel frowned. “But the nurses said she had no visitors.”

  “No visitors that checked in with them. That doesn’t mean there weren’t any.”

  “Or that Mary wasn’t imagining it.”

  Sam nodded, conceding the point even if she didn’t believe that was the case. “What, exactly, did you see when you climbed out of the car?”

  “I thought I saw something move—something that was human in shape and yet held no substance.”

  “And later, when you gave chase?”

  “A crow, as I said.”

  She blew out a breath. “A crow is one of Joshua’s shapes, apparently.” But it was also one of Joe’s. And one of them, more than likely, was Kathryn Douglass’s murderer.

  If they were two separate beings, that was. It was more than possible Joe and Joshua were one and the same.

  “So this Joshua of yours is Blaine?”

  The sudden edge in his voice surprised her, though, as usual, there was little emotion to be seen in his expression. She shook her head. “Not unless he can be in two places at the same time. Mary was talking to Joshua when Blaine appeared. Blaine apparently recognized Josh and ran. Joshua gave chase.”

  “So if it was Joshua I was chasing, what happened to Blaine?”

  “Who knows? But Mary called him a day shadow—apparently he could creep around without being seen.”

  His eyebrows rose. “Meaning he could still be here? Can you feel him?”

  Sam extended her senses, searching, but there was no sense of the shadowy evil she’d felt earlier. Blaine—if it was indeed Blaine she’d sensed—had gone. She shook her head.

  “So, the question is,” Gabriel said, “why were both men here today?”

  “If you believe her—and I do—then Joshua was here to tell Mary that it was okay to tell me everything. He apparently told her the military could no longer stop her.”

  He studied her, his face unreadable. “And Blaine?”

  “As I said, I think he was here to confirm his suspicions. Mary worked in the nursery. She’s probably the only one left alive who has any true knowledge about me and Joshua.”

  “Did you ask her about Sethanon?”

  Sam nodded. “She didn’t know anyone by that name, but said that Joshua was punished once for reading a book with that title.”

  “A book? He named himself after a book?”

  “Well, if Sethanon is actually Joshua, then yes. But it’s a bit of a long shot, isn’t it?”

  Gabriel shrugged. “We’ve never been able to find a birth record for someone with that name, so it has to be an alias. And there’s no rule stating an alias can’t come from a book title.”

  “But if J
oshua is this Sethanon of yours, then how has he managed to remain unknown so long?”

  “I think the only people who might be able to answer our questions are Blaine and Lloyd,” Gabriel said. “Both of them were involved in the Penumbra project.”

  “And neither of them will be inclined to be forthcoming.”

  “I agree.” Gabriel hesitated. “Look, let’s get Mary moved; then we can talk some more.”

  Sam studied him for a moment, again noting the sudden edge in his voice. “About what, exactly?”

  “About crows. The one seen here, and the people you know who are crows.”

  “Why do I get the sudden feeling I’m not going to like the direction of this conversation?”

  “Probably because you won’t.” His expression was suddenly grim. “Remember when I mentioned Kathryn Douglass being murdered, and a crow feather being found at the murder scene?” When she nodded, he said, “There was something else, too—a warning about not reviving Penumbra written in blood on the wall. I don’t think it’s a coincidence. I think that either your brother or the man you’ve been in psychic contact with is a murderer.”

  ELEVEN

  “BUT WHY WOULD EITHER OF them want to murder Douglass when she had nothing to do with the Penumbra project?” There was no surprise in her voice, no anger. No emotion at all, really, except perhaps a tiny hint of weary resignation. As if this was just another shock in a day that had already provided several.

  Gabriel shrugged. In truth, he had no answer to that question, and certainly no proof yet that the feather they’d found in Douglass’s apartment was linked to either the man from Sam’s past or the man in her telepathic journeys. All he had was suspicion and a feeling that his guess was the correct one.

  “She was in contact with both Blaine and Lloyd on an operational level. I suspect they had actually begun work on a project similar to Penumbra, and your brother or psi buddy discovered it. Hence the warning on the wall.”

  She studied him for a moment, then said, “Why would Pegasus be employed to revive a project like Penumbra? Wouldn’t the military want that sort of project under its own control?”

  “Pegasus worked in conjunction with the military on a number of projects. Given the warning also said that Douglass was told not to proceed with the project, it suggests that maybe she was the reason behind its revival. We’ll never know for sure now, given that she’s dead.”

  “And it’s not like the military will tell us,” Sam said. “But the thing is, Penumbra was totally destroyed. It wasn’t just the buildings, but most of the personnel and all the research materials, so neither Pegasus nor the military should have been able to revive it.”

  “Unless Douglass somehow came across research material relating to shadow walkers. If Karl has documents on it, there’ll be other stuff out there as well. Maybe she started research, and then went to the military.”

  “But even then—”

  “It might not have amounted to anything,” he finished for her. “Except for the fact that they’d discovered the possibility that one of their test subjects had survived the destruction.”

  And that, he realized suddenly, was what the explosion at the Pegasus Foundation had been about. Those in control of Penumbra had been under the impression that fire was Sam’s element to control. They’d intended to use her reaction to the firestorm at Pegasus to test whether or not she was who they thought—and then the med check afterward would have confirmed it. But then, why had they gone ahead with the test when he and Illie had shown up instead?

  Had Douglass been confused as to the identity or sex of the test subject? Or was there, as Illie had suggested, a deeper reason for him and Illie being given the test anyway?

  And what would they have done if the two of them had died that day?

  It was probably something they would never know, since Douglass was now dead. And Blaine and Lloyd were not likely to be fonts of information.

  He just wished he knew what they thought about that message on the wall. Neither man had given much away, and though he believed Lloyd’s comment that he had no idea why that particular message had been left with Douglass’s body, Blaine had made no such comment. And Gabriel had a feeling that Blaine not only knew the reason behind it, but supported it. Which was an odd thing to think when Blaine was supposedly the man who’d been in charge of the project.

  But he could admit to none of this aloud. Not to Sam, anyway. She had enough to worry about already.

  “What I think,” he said eventually, “is that someone is still trying to protect you. Whether that person is this unseen brother of yours, or whether it’s the man you’re psychically connected to, is something only you can answer.”

  “Why would my brother—the man you’ve suggested could be Sethanon—want to stop Penumbra when that very project could give him the army he needs to win his war?”

  “I don’t know. But I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the feather was found in Douglass’s apartment.” He hesitated, then added, “But I do think it’s time you started asking some hard questions.”

  Anger flashed in her eyes, reminding him briefly of a burst of lightning. “You think I haven’t been?”

  “I think you’ve been delaying certain issues because you’re afraid to uncover the truth.”

  That streak of lightning seemed brighter in her eyes, and this time it was accompanied by a stirring in the air that was vaguely reminiscent of the crackle of energy that raced just before a thunderstorm.

  But before he could comment on it, his wristcom rang. He tapped it and said impatiently, “Assistant Director Stern.”

  “Hey, partner, got some news you might not want to hear.”

  “Spit it out, Illie. I don’t have time for games right now.”

  “We found another body in Kathryn Douglass’s apartment. It was cut into pieces and shoved into an upright freezer.”

  “How did the State boys manage to miss that?”

  “Well, the body parts were covered by standard-issue meat trays and weren’t immediately recognizable.”

  “I would have thought a severed human head would be immediately recognizable.”

  “A human head?” Sam asked, eyebrow raised in query. Gabriel noted with interest that the electricity in the air seemed to fade away once her attention was diverted.

  “Well, that was at the bottom of the freezer, and it was only after undoing the black plastic around the body parts that we realized what we had.”

  “So why did you think to look in the freezer in the first place?”

  “Well, rules say we have to do a thorough search of the premises, but it was primarily curiosity that had me looking deeper into the freezer. Douglass was apparently a vegetarian, so what was she doing with a freezer full of meat?”

  “Have you sent the remains to the labs for analysis?”

  “Yeah, Finley’s checking it out as we speak. I thought you might want to be there for his initial report.”

  Gabriel frowned. “And why would I want to do that?”

  “Because if the head was anything to go by, the dead woman is an exact replica of Douglass herself, only a little younger.”

  Surprise rippled through him. “Did she have a sister?”

  “No immediate living family. There are two cousins and an aunt now living in the United States, but that’s about it.”

  “I’ll head over to headquarters now. Anything else?”

  “Not offhand. I’m still digging into her past.”

  “What about Blaine?”

  “That’s a big, fat zero. The military has not been forthcoming with information, either.”

  No surprise there. “Well, then, continue both investigations and let me know if you find anything.” He hit the end button and met Sam’s curious gaze. “They found another body at Douglass’s apartment. One that looks identical to the murdered woman.”

  “A twin? Or a clone?”

  “According to the records, Douglass had no immediate fam
ily.”

  “Well, if both Douglasses are dead, then it can’t be a shapeshifter at work. Those revert to their natural forms when they die, so at least one of them has to be a clone. Right?”

  “Perhaps. But nothing in this whole mess is what it seems, so maybe we’ve also found a shapeshifter who does not revert.” He rubbed his head, then pulled his car keys from his pocket and handed them to her. “Go back to the hotel and get some sleep. I’ll make arrangements to get Mary transferred to a safe house and then go talk to Finley.”

  She took the keys from him, her fingers touching his only briefly, yet they sent an electric charge through his entire body. A charge reflected briefly in her eyes.

  “What about our discussion?” she said softly. “And my brunch?”

  “I’ll meet you at the hotel around four this afternoon and drive you to Wetherton’s. We can talk on the way. We’ll have to do that rain check on the apology lunch after all.”

  Sam nodded and glanced into the room, as if to reassure herself Mary was okay, then walked away. He watched her for a few seconds, then started making arrangements to secure Mary.

  —

  “How’s the examination coming along, Finley?” Gabriel asked as he strode into the lab.

  Finley cleared his throat and slid his thick glasses up the bridge of his nose with a gloved finger. “Well, this is certainly an interesting situation. Two identical bodies, both chopped into pieces, one a younger version of the other.”

  Gabriel stopped at the end of one of the tables and examined the two sets of remains. The two women would definitely have been physically identical if not for the deeper age lines around the face of their original victim. “The cuts on the younger version appear to be from a sharp instrument.”

  “They are. It appears she was strangled before she was sliced apart.”

  “You’ve done DNA testing?”

  “Yes. The younger one is the clone. It would seem Kathryn Douglass was planning to skip the whole ‘age gracefully’ idea.”

  No real surprise, given Douglass’s name had been on Kazdan’s list. “She wouldn’t be the first woman in the world to resort to surgery to do that.”