LITMIR.BIZ

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“Detective Willis is a busy man. How can I help you?”

      Darby moistened her lips and summoned her courage. The shaking wouldn’t subside. She just couldn’t stop it. “Please, sir, it’s urgent that I speak with Detective Willis.”

      He looked up at her then. “Like I said, lady, it’s me or nothing. Now, how can I help you?”

      She took a breath, nodded stiffly. “All right…I…just…” Her gaze locked with his. “I think I know where the children are.”

      Chapter Three

      Center

      Ghost Mountain

      Colorado

      Governor Kyle Remington shook his head at the collection of newspapers on the conference table before him. Center and its advanced work were the most tightly kept secrets in the nation. How could this happen? “Tell us how this happened, Director O’Riley.”

      His gaze shifted from the dozen or so papers and settled solemnly onto Richard O’Riley. The other members of the Collective seated around the long conference table turned their attention in his direction as well. O’Riley was the man whose primary responsibility was to protect the nation’s top scientific research facility.

      “There is no easy explanation,” O’Riley stalled. He had gotten the first ripples of intelligence on this matter at dawn this morning. Dupree, Center’s senior intelligence analyst, had picked it up on the Net. Not the Net as in the Internet, but Center’s Net, a specialized surveillance system that monitored all sources of mass communication—the World Wide Web, telephones, satellites and the like. Certain key words triggered the Net and the source of the key words was then recorded and analyzed for relevant data.

      More than a dozen Louisiana newspapers had rushed to change copy at the crack of dawn to include a break in a big case involving missing children in New Orleans. By 7:00 a.m., every single one of those front pages had recounted a story right off the pages of a science fiction novel. Psychic Teacher Leads Police To Child Killer…Teacher Uses Special Gift To Find Missing Student…etcetera, etcetera.

      Eve was all grown up.

      For sixteen years, Center had assumed her case to be a failure. But now they knew differently.

      The whole damned world knew differently.

      “Darby Shepard, aka Eve, was deemed a failure sixteen years ago,” O’Riley began. The impatient expressions pointed in his direction told him they wanted to hear something they didn’t already know. “At age ten, after years of intensive training, she continued to show no progress. In fact, she became combative and uncooperative.”

      “Why was she not terminated?” a senior member wanted to know. “Isn’t that the usual protocol for failures?”

      O’Riley bit back the first response that raced to the tip of his tongue. “Yes. Termination is the standard protocol. However…” He wondered what he could possibly say that would make a difference. He looked from one face to the other. He had known the members of this elite committee for more than twenty years. They represented the most distinguished scholars, the most dedicated politicians, and still there were times when O’Riley wondered if it was enough. Was any mere human, or collective of the species, really qualified to make these kinds of ultimate decisions?

      Maybe he was simply getting old and soft. Maybe he’d always secretly had a heart that wasn’t completely made of stone. His ex-wife certainly wouldn’t agree with that theory. But then that’s why she was his ex—he lacked the human compassion she needed, hadn’t paid enough attention to her. But how could he? He was too busy keeping these bastards straight, saving the world and all that jazz—taking care of little girls like Darby Shepard.

      “We’re waiting, Director,” Remington reminded him pointedly. “Why is Eve still alive? How did this happen?”

      If he were smart, he’d simply blame the decision on Daniel Archer—after all, he was dead. What could they do to him? He certainly couldn’t deny the charge. But no, O’Riley wouldn’t do that to his old friend. This was his mess; he would clean it up. He’d had his own reasons for making that decision. Reasons they didn’t need to know. Daniel Archer had been the one to bring this program to fruition. He deserved better than to be O’Riley’s scapegoat.

      “The decision was mine,” he said bluntly. Looks were exchanged, as he had known there would be, but he ignored the blatant lack of decorum and continued, “She was a ten-year-old child. Our only failure past the sixth division.” Not one embryo that had developed past the sixth division had proven to be a failure. Only Eve. “I saw no reason to terminate what I considered an innocent life. Medical wiped her memory and she was entered into the mainstream as an orphaned child with traumatic amnesia.”

      “Then she had no memory of her time at Center,” another member suggested, his tone as well as his expression hopeful.

      O’Riley almost laughed at that. Who among these distinguished gentlemen would give the order to terminate Miss Darby Shepard, he wondered? Not a single one. They would leave it up to him—just as they always had.

      “I have no reason to doubt Medical’s ability to thoroughly cleanse memory imprints,” O’Riley agreed. “But that’s a chance we can’t afford to take.”

      “Are you suggesting a termination at this late date?” Remington wanted to know.

      Ah, a leader with balls. How refreshing, O’Riley mused. Terrence Winslow, the former head of this esteemed group, had certainly possessed none. Then again, this could all be show for the boys around the table.

      “A termination may not be necessary,” O’Riley offered. “My recommendation would be to send someone in to assess the situation. Someone who could get close to her and determine if she remembers anything about Center. If she understands the true nature of her gift.”

      “Who would you recommend for the assignment?” This from the newest member of the esteemed group.

      O’Riley had already considered who would be the best man for the job. There wasn’t even a question. “I’ve already briefed Aidan. He’s ready for the operation.”

      “Why Aidan?” Remington inquired.

      “He’s a seer. He’ll be able to touch her mind better than any of the other Enforcers.” He felt no compunction to go into the other issue. There were things even the Collective didn’t need to know. The Enforcers were genetically enhanced creations. As human as O’Riley, only better. They secretly served the world whenever the need arose.

      “A seer…” Remington considered the designation for a moment. “In other words, he possesses the same traits that supposedly failed in Eve.”

      “That’s right,” O’Riley agreed, though he didn’t see the point. The whole frigging room was well aware of what a seer was. “All Enforcers have a heightened ability to read the sensory signals of other humans. Aidan and Eve were the only two we believed to have achieved the highest level of so-called clairvoyance genetically possible. We, of course, later deemed Eve to be a failure. Apparently that was not the case.”

      “Apparently,” Remington parroted.

      Another exchange of suspect looks around the conference table. O’Riley really hated this shit. Why didn’t they just let him do his job? They’d get their briefing afterwards and his world would be a happy place again.

      “Aidan will assess the situation and I will make a decision based on that intel.” ’Nough said, O’Riley didn’t add.

      “When will the Enforcer be ready to move into position?”

      “Today.” As Center’s director, he had never believed in putting off until tomorrow what could be done today. Besides, the situation could blow way out of control in a hell of a hurry. He wasn’t completely immune to the urgency or the possible fallout if she suddenly started telling tales outside school, so to speak.

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