Subject Seven (17 page)

Gene said, “The door's over there and I guess we should use it.”

Tina looked around and shook her head. It was a fake. Everything around them looked like it was covered in gang tags, but it was too fresh, too new. The building wasn't as rough as someone wanted to make it look, and that was sending all sorts of warning signals to her.

“I don't think this place is abandoned.” Cody looked hard at her, and she could see him stopping himself from saying something. “What?” She threw the single word as a challenge.

Cody blinked. “Nothing. I was just thinking you'd know better than me.”

She bristled. “You think I'm trashy?”

He looked like a mouse facing a very large cat. “What? No! I just, I figured you might be—”

“Just decide if you're going in or not. Leave the fights for later.” That was Hunter, who headed for the door. He was taking control of the situation without even trying. She wondered if he even knew that.

Gene looked at the other boy's back for a moment, sighed, and followed him. After that it seemed like everyone had decided. They moved, walking toward the building as a unit, following Hunter.

Just like that
, she thought.
He leads and we follow. How did that happen?
There was something about him that made it seem perfectly natural. She looked at his sleek, muscular body and thought maybe that was part of it. He was damned cute.

Up close she could see even more clearly that she'd been right. There was a little damage to the building, but it was all superficial. None of the windows were broken out, and no one had come along and cannibalized the place yet. Most of Camden, you couldn't throw a rock without hitting a building that had been stripped of doors, windows or most especially metal. With the cost of copper, aluminum and other metals, somebody would have torn the hell out of the place just to get to the pipes if the place had been empty for long. The fine hairs on the back of her neck stood up and she suppressed a shiver.

Cody seemed to feel it too. He looked around with a frown on his face and a worried expression. She caught his eye and he nodded to let her know she was right. He didn't trust any of it. No more than she did.

And then Hunter, Gene and Kyrie were inside. Cody shook his head and followed. Tina gave one last look around the place and then followed, hating the feeling that she was walking into something even worse than her life had already become.

EVELYN HOPE LOOKED UP from her excellent broiled leg of lamb with mint jelly dinner as George knocked briskly and entered her office. She set down her fork and looked longingly at the herbed potato she'd skewered. Business first, unfortunately. “There's been further activity at the warehouse.”

Gabriel let out a small belch and covered his mouth with his napkin, casting an apology with his eyes. The smallest offense and he apologized. She smiled with her eyes before turning to look at George.

She wiped her lips carefully and set the napkin to the right of her plate. “Really? Actual activity this time? Not another indigent looking for scraps?”

George looked at her with an exasperated sigh that said he didn't much like being doubted. She didn't like having her dinner with her son interrupted. So they were even.

“Surveillance showed one man entering the building several hours ago. As I said then, the individual put a cheap table and even cheaper chairs in there, along with a TV.”

She smiled. It was killing George that she hadn't let him take the TV from the place. Instead she'd gone over there herself with Gabriel in tow and pulled the package from the player and made a copy. Then placed the original back where it belonged. It didn't bother him that she would risk her own life but that she hadn't shared the contents of the video.

She hadn't watched it herself as yet, hadn't had the time, really, but now that there was activity at the warehouse a second time, she would make the time. Having someone try to set up a video seminar was strange, but hardly a crisis. Having that someone come back with others made it a bit more of a priority.

Gabriel set down his cutlery and waited patiently for the meal to resume. He was careful not to speak because, as she had made clear a long time ago, children were never to interrupt adults. He could speak up around her and be himself, but the academy frowned on any child disrespecting adults.

“Send in the first unit, George.”

He nodded. “Backup teams?”

“You know how I feel about people nosing into my business. Two backup teams and a bird.”

“A bird?” He lifted one eyebrow.

Gabriel made a show of not listening. He was a curious child. She loved that about him.

“The building has served its purpose, and you should know by now that I'm hardly sentimental.”

He tried looking shocked for a second and then shrugged.

“And George?”

“Yes, Evelyn?” He looked over his shoulder as he headed for the door.

“Henri? Is that the chef's name?” He nodded. “Tell Henri the lamb is perfect tonight.” She looked at Gabriel. “Would you agree, Gabby?”

“Yes, Mother.” Good boy. Very polite in front of George, as he should be.

George nodded and left and Evelyn looked down at her dinner. She contemplated ignoring the food, but a sound body helped promote a sound mind, and she had already skipped lunch. Besides which, it was really quite tasty.

After George was out of the room, Gabriel looked at the door he'd used to leave and made a raspberry noise with his tongue, blowing a long, wet note.

Evelyn tried to keep a straight face and a frown of disapproval, but her exterior cracked and she let out a small laugh, covering her mouth with her fingers to muffle it.

“You're impossible, Gabby.”

Gabriel smiled, that warm, lovely expression lighting his face. “He's just so . . . stuffy.”

She waved her fingers at him. “Eat your dinner. Shameless. You are shameless.”

“I am my mother's son.” He spoke softly with his usual dry wit. And she realized he was right. He was her boy and hers alone. She thought of Bobby and how much she missed him and then pushed that aside. Bobby was the past. Gabriel was today.

After a few seconds she started eating again, curious as to what would happen at the old offices. Gabriel sat with her, both of them content to share a comfortable silence.

WAS THIS A TRAP? No. Anyone who wanted them trapped wouldn't have gone through this much effort. It would be easier and less costly to just get each of them separately. And even if it was a trap, what else did he have at this point?

He opened the door and marched into the building, ready for almost anything and hoping he'd get a chance to see Joe Bronx in person, just so he could kick the bastard's face in.

He came to a dead halt when he saw the small empty room that would have been a reception area in most cases. Light gray carpeting still lay across the floor and he could see where a desk had been. There were holes in the walls from where pictures had been hung, and he could see the light stains on the walls where bookshelves and file cabinets must have rested.

There was a second door that led deeper into the building, and on that door's surface was a sign much like the ones he'd dealt with for the last few months. The letters were bold and written in black marker. THIS WAY was all the sign said.

He didn't hesitate. Hunter pulled the door open, scowling, his heart beating harder and harder as he looked around the area. Most of the building looked to have been stripped away. There was evidence that cubicles had been built into the floor previously, but everything of importance had been gutted, down to the scraps of paper that might have told them something.

A good seventy feet in, there was a cheap TV set, a videocassette player and six chairs.

“Are you serious?” His voice echoed off the distant warehouse walls.

The Rothstein kid walked past him and looked around. “Yes. I think they're serious. I don't know who's being so obscure, but I think they're very serious.”

“Well, this is crap!” His voice rose in volume and echoed off the distant walls, and Hunter had to force his hands to unclench from the fists that wanted to swing at everything around him. Months of his life for a promise of answers and all he got was a chair and a video? He couldn't believe it.

Kyrie walked up and stood next to Gene. She bit her lower lip for a moment and then looked toward Hunter with wide, worried eyes. “So what happens now?”

Gene answered. “Why don't we do what someone obviously wants us to do and listen to whatever is on the tape?”

Hunter stared for a long moment and finally nodded. Without being asked, Cody walked over to the setup and turned on the screen. A moment later the tape was playing and everyone was settling into one of the chairs.

After a few moments, an image formed on the old TV. The guy looking at them appeared to be in his late teens. He was ripped, solid muscle and sinew, with a hard face and dark eyes that looked at the camera like maybe it had called him a few names.

“Hi. There should be six seats, none of them empty. If there are any empties, that means someone didn't bother. Pity, but there it is.”

Hunter did a quick count. Five total, including him.

The man in the image leaned toward the camera and slid slightly out of focus for a moment. “My name is Joe Bronx. I've contacted all of you at least once, sometimes a lot of times. I'm here to give you some answers and I have to tell you, you're not going to like all of them.” For a man who was about to give out bad news, he seemed pretty comfortable.

Hunter stared hard at the screen. Joe Bronx. He recognized the voice, of course. He knew it intimately and hated it. He had not, however, ever seen the man before and now that he was seeing him, he was worried. In a perfect world Joe Bronx would be a skinny little puppy of a man he could break with ease. The reality was not nearly as comfortable. Joe Bronx was heavy with muscles but not steroid, Mr. Universe meat; no, he was solid with the sort of muscles that a person earned with hard workouts, calisthenics, push-ups, swimming a hundred laps a day or maybe running the occasional marathon. He was sitting down, but every move was graceful and showed the play of muscles under the black T-shirt he was wearing. Hunter was surprised by his own physical shape, but this guy? He was slightly in awe of the boy on the video. He looked . . . dangerous.

“Kiss my ass.” The words were whispered, but heartfelt.

Joe Bronx chuckled on the screen, almost as if he could hear Hunter's anger.

“I bet Hunter is there. I bet he's just as angry as can be, too. Well, that's all right. I haven't made his life easy. I've been working Hunter like he was my secretary and without any hourly wages.” He leaned in closer again and damned if his eyes didn't pick exactly the spot where Hunter was sitting to fix his stare.

“Here's how this works. I have packages of information that I'll give to you soon. First, we go over some basics, because much as I wish I could tell each of you about this stuff in person, that hasn't been possible.” He paused and took a sip of a soda. “First, you've all been having blackouts. What do I mean? You've all had a few occasions lately where you wound up in the wrong spot. Went to bed in your room, woke up in Brooklyn, wasn't it, Gene?” He chuckled. “You probably think you got the short end of that stick, my friend, but next to Cody you've had it easy. Cody woke up in jail. He got out, but since then, well, his life hasn't been a happy place.”

He paused again, and Hunter nodded. Joe Bronx was smart. He was waiting deliberately, giving them time to absorb what he was saying, before he dropped the next bomb.

“I'm going to explain that and you're probably going to decide I'm full of shit. That's okay. You don't have to believe me. It'll make your lives easier, but there's no one that says you have to trust anything I say.

“So let's start this one the easy way. First, you're all adopted.” Hunter flicked his eyes around the room and saw Gene twitch like someone had slapped his face. The only person who didn't seem shocked by the notion was Kyrie. “Yes, adopted. Some of you already know that. Maybe a few of you thought it, but I bet a couple of you had no idea. That's okay. You weren't supposed to know. You weren't supposed to meet each other, either. I'm the one who set that up. I'm the one who decided you should all meet so you could learn a few uncomfortable truths.” He stood up from his seat, and Hunter recognized the view. The wall behind Joe Bronx was the same wall he was facing now. He could see the faint marks from where the filing cabinets had rested. He could also see that, in addition to being broader and more heavily muscled, Bronx was taller than he was by at least a few inches.

“Here's the deal. I'm doing this on tape for a lot of reasons, but mostly it's so you can all sit around and discuss your options. There aren't as many as you think. Afterward, maybe, we can come to understand each other a little better.

“Don't go looking for your real families, because they don't exist. You don't have parents. You are, all of you, genetic experiments.” He grinned. Even his smile had menace in it. “I know. Science fiction, right? Welcome to the twenty-first century. It won't be slowing down anytime soon. You aren't clones and you aren't exactly test-tube babies. Every one of you in that room was designed for a special purpose. You were created to be perfect soldiers. Perfect spies, really.”

Cody laughed out loud. “Okay, seriously? Is anyone buying this shit?” He flexed an arm that had virtually no noticeable muscle definition. “I'm a soldier? 'Cause if I am, that army's gonna suck, dudes.”