The Shadow Project Read online

Oh, really? Leah, a petite brunette with big green eyes and a pixie-like face, blushed and sent a side glance to John Graves. He smiled indulgently, and, more interestingly, Bev stiffened, her smile draining from her eyes.

  Hmmm… Scandal in the laboratory? That could be interesting…and advantageous.

  "How long have you worked here?" Selene asked.

  "Three months," Leah chirped. "Doctor Graves knew me from the hospital and told me to apply when the job opened."

  "When did that happen?" I asked Cimex, who beamed at his people. It was interesting that Leah hadn't been invited to dinner. Because she was a suspect? Or irrelevant? And who had she replaced?

  His smile didn't falter as he looked up. "Now let me see. Right, we did fire someone right after the incident." By which, I presumed he meant the loss of the vector. "Not that we had any concrete proof. No, wait, he, ah, left. Said he had a family situation he had to take care of."

  "Do you know what happened to him?" Selene asked.

  "No, but I could give you his information."

  "Did you think it at all suspicious that he quit right after the, ah, incident?" I tried to make my question as friendly as possible, but I'm not sure I managed to keep the implied, "you idiot" out of my tone.

  "We did consider it," Cimex said. "But he didn't have access to that part of the laboratory. Only a few do. I'll give you a list."

  "That would be helpful," Selene told him.

  After a few more scientists and techs trotted up for their turn in the dog and pony show, we adjourned to Cimex's office, where Lawrence joined us along with Corey. Although the office had looked big before we entered, the presence of so many people turned it claustrophobic. Plus, whoever had decorated it had come from the school of industrial scientific chic. The painted cinder block walls, diplomas, and metal and surplus storage-vibe of the furniture made it feel shabby, not like the office of a department head.

  "Here's the list of the people whose key cards will let them in to the room where the top-secret samples are kept." Cimex handed Selene a list. I held out my hand for a copy, but he shook his head. "Sorry, I only have one. Can y'all share?"

  Selene and I, who sat across his desk from him, leaned in and looked at the list together. It included Cimex, Lawrence Gordon, the Graves couple, a behavioral epidemiologist I recalled meeting because of how beautiful she was—all dark hair, eyes, and skin—and a couple of techs, who assisted the scientists on the list.

  "Had anyone seemed unhappy, or did they act differently before the incident?" Selene asked.

  "Now that you mention it, Mickey—that's the tech who left—had gotten a poor performance review, his first while working for us, and he'd been here a while. He said it was because of his family situation. He couldn't keep his mind on his work, or so he claimed."

  So far I wasn't impressed with Cimex's sleuthing or management abilities, and Selene’s expression said she felt the same.

  "Anyone else?" she asked. "I know it's been a while, but any direction you can give us will be helpful."

  Cimex, Gordon, and Corey all glanced at each other. "We'll discuss it," Cimex said. "Now, why don't y'all look around, talk to people? See what you can get a feeling for. Doctor Rial, I understand you have some empathic abilities."

  "They're minor," Selene said. "Nothing magical, just good observational powers."

  I kept myself from snorting. She hadn't figured me out yet.

  Sir Raleigh, who'd been napping on my shoulder since we arrived, stirred and woke. He yawned, and the sound finished with a squeak in my ear. He kneaded my shirt with sharp claws, and the pinpricks of pain on my right shoulder nearly made me miss Selene's final question.

  "Thanks, and please let me know if you do think of anything. By the way, did you call campus security when you noticed the sample missing?" Selene tucked the list in her purse.

  "We have our own security." Cimex gestured to Corey. "Agent McLendon's superiors can let you know what they found. Basically—and embarrassingly—it was a minor breach of protocol that led to a big problem."

  "Right." Selene stood, and I did likewise, but I had one more question—something it seemed no one had thought to ask.

  "What about the industry contacts?" I asked. "Has no one managed to get in touch with them? They should be happy to sell out their supplier now that they've made a mess of things with CLS."

  "That's another issue," Cimex said with a sigh. "The head of the project at Cabal Pharmaceuticals has disappeared. Believe me, a lot of time and resources were wasted trying to track him down."

  I nodded. "Guess we'll get started, then."

  We walked out of the office and paused by the door. Sir Raleigh less-than-gracefully let himself down by half-climbing, half-crawling down my shirt and pants. While I was glad he was using his limbs and not blinking in and out, I didn't appreciate the resulting small holes in my clothing.

  "Will he remain unharnessed?" Lawrence asked.

  "I suppose so," I said. "I trust he'll stick close by." I gave the cat a stern look, not that I knew how much good that would do.

  "I need some air after that close office," Selene murmured. "Reine, care to join me?"

  "Definitely."

  "I'll accompany you," Lawrence said.

  "No, no, that's not necessary," Selene told him with a gentle hand on his arm. "We're going to be fine, and I'm sure you have important work to do."

  "Well, I do have some reports to catch up on," he grumbled good-naturedly. "Doctor River has my cell phone number if you need me. And Corey won't be far away."

  Indeed, the golden-eyed cat shifter hovered nearby. Lawrence left, and Selene and I walked out with not just one, but two feline shadows, since Sir Raleigh seemed inclined to follow us, as did Corey. At least he hung back unobtrusively, but I guessed he'd have cat-sensitive hearing.

  "Do you mind?" I asked and put as much Fae persuasion behind my words. "Doctor Rial and I would like some privacy to discuss things."

  "Of course, ma'am. I'll be nearby, though, so holler if you need anything."

  "Will do."

  Once he moved far enough away, or so I thought, Selene asked, "Can you do anything to mask…?" She gestured between the two of us.

  "Not too much. My powers are greatly attenuated here." I sighed and leaned against the brick. We were on the east side of the building, so while the air was chilly, the wall had absorbed some heat. The mineral and fire baked my back and rear end and soothed some of my anxiety, but not all of it.

  "What do you think?" she asked, still softly.

  "That they're each hiding something," I replied. "But I don't know what's relevant and what's not."

  "Did you know they're calling us consultants since Max and Gabriel couldn't come?" She snorted. "That's the problem of not being able to publish our work in the mainstream literature—no one here will recognize my name."

  "If we're consultants, they need to pay us," I grumbled. She laughed.

  "So what's our next step, do you think?" she pulled out her phone. "It looks like we're in charge, after all."

  "I'm curious about that tech."

  "Me, too."

  I pushed off the wall and focused on my cat, which I'd kept in my peripheral vision to make sure he didn't wander off too far. Sir Raleigh chased something on the nearby lawn, then looked up at something we couldn't see, arched his back, and growled. Something stirred the blades of grass a few feet away.

  "Do you…see that?" Selene asked.

  "Yes." I grabbed the kitten. "Corey!"

  13

  We almost smashed into Corey as he rounded the corner of the building.

  "What is it?" he asked.

  "Something…" I trailed off. It occurred to me that if we were dealing with an invisible foe, that talent fell under either astral projection or shapeshifting, and we still didn't know who to trust.

  "Something spooked her." Selene took over smoothly and shrugged. "Fae. What are you going to do?"

  Corey's golden gaze lingered on her
sweaty face and too-wide eyes. "Right."

  "Psychologists, what are you going to do?" I said with a mocking shrug. "We need transportation somewhere."

  "I'll take you," he said with a grin he mostly aimed at Selene. Sucker. "That's my job. Cimex has assigned me to watch over y'all."

  "Oh, I'm sure we'll be fine," I said, but the hairs along my back and neck hadn't stood down after our brief encounter with… Well, whatever it was. I guess I didn't sound convincing because he pulled his keys from his pocket and motioned for us to follow him.

  "Car's this way, ladies. Where are we going?"

  Selene followed him, but a tug on my jacket nearly made me jump out of my skin and drop the cat. Instead, I clutched him tighter and turned. He squeaked indignantly, so I loosened my hold.

  "Yes?" I asked Leah the tech. She held up a cat carrier.

  "Doctor Lawrence said to give you this in case you decided to go somewhere." She smiled, and her entire face lit up. I could see how John Graves would get suckered in.

  "Thanks." I ignored the hard side-eye Sir Raleigh gave the object. Leah didn't immediately turn to go back inside, although she shivered in her lab coat. "Is there something else?" I asked.

  "Yes," she said. All traces of mirth left her face, leaving her looking serious and older. "Doctor Cimex lied to you about the secure room where the fridges and freezers with samples are. They should be locked, but the keypad developed a short and sometimes wouldn't open, so someone—I don't know who, probably Doctor Graves—rigged it so all you have to do is press the same number four times, and it will open. It saves us a lot of time."

  "That sounds…illegal," I said.

  "Yes, it probably is," she agreed. "But it's how it is here, and how it was when I got here." She paused to make sure I got her hint—that the lock had been broken before the previous tech left. I nodded. She continued, "The rest of the organization doesn't take what we do seriously, so we're not watched as closely, and we get away with more. And they're only human, after all."

  "And you're not?" I asked.

  "Not entirely." And with that cryptic comment, she whirled around and went inside, leaving me speechless, a rare condition for me.

  "Well, Sir Raleigh," I said and scratched his head with my free hand. "This gets more and more interesting."

  Corey opened the back door for me when I reached the car. Selene already sat in front and had her phone out. "It says that Mickey lives in Tucker. Is that far? I admit I'm turned around." She gave him a helpless look, and he blushed. I guess I wasn't the only one who'd decided to try to charm information out of someone. Her strategy seemed to be working better than mine.

  "It's a little out of town, but not too far," he replied. "Doctor River, would you like to secure the cat?"

  Although it had been phrased politely as a question, I heard the command in his tone. I pointed to the open carrier, and Sir Raleigh gave me a "really, this again?" look but slunk inside. He turned around, laid his head on his paws, and fixed me with a baleful stare through the bars of the door.

  "It's not for long," I promised. I wished he could speak so I could ask what he'd seen outside, what had made him growl. Although he couldn't weigh more than a pound, he'd made a truly hair-raising sound that resembled something I'd heard before. I couldn't put my mental fingers on it, though.

  Corey and Selene chatted about the city and how it had changed. It seemed to be a never-ending topic of conversation, so I once again stared out the window and tried to commune with the trees. As usual, they whispered their greetings, but this morning they added signs of caution, that I needed to be careful and watch. Their admonitions sounded so much like what the man in the airport had said to me I suspected there must be a connection. But what could it be? And how could he have passed his message on to the trees?

  Unless he was a Fae like me. My Fae-dar hadn't gone off, though I'd been upset enough that I could have missed a slight signal, especially if he was from a different region. We responded most to those who'd spent a lot of time close to us. Not that I'd spent much time with any other Fae except for Rhys in the last few centuries.

  A familiar word brought my attention to the front of the car—Culloden.

  "Did you ever go to the Highland Games there?" Selene asked. "Since your dad was on the athlete circuit, I thought you may have. They stopped a while ago."

  "In Scotland?" I asked. "And they're still going."

  "No," Corey responded with a chuckle. "In South Georgia. Tiny town, but they played up the name connection. You're familiar with the original?"

  "Quite." The battle had drawn me and Rhys out of Faerie. Tasked to spy, we’d split up…

  I blinked away the memories.

  "What is it like?" Corey asked.

  Thankfully Selene answered him. I didn't want to think about it. Instead I focused on the mental image of the nearby standing stones, a place of balm and healing for me, even if they didn't open for me to allow me to pass into Faerie again.

  Corey pulled up to a small ranch-style house in a quiet neighborhood. The yard showed that someone cared for it, and tulips and other colorful bulb flowers nodded in the morning breeze along the walk and in the front bed. The sight lifted my spirits. Perhaps if Mickey was a gardener, I could connect with him.

  Corey turned off the ignition, got out, and opened my door, and then Selene's.

  "Perhaps it would be best if you didn't come," Selene suggested gently. "He may be more likely to open up to us."

  Gutsy move on her part. It seemed that opening up was exactly what Cimex and his crew didn't want the guy to do, but Corey shrugged.

  "Suit yourself," he said. "I'll be here if you need me. Just shout. I'm sure I'll hear you."

  My cheeks heated with shame at how I'd panicked. But I didn't think my reaction unjustified, if unexplainable. Sir Raleigh stayed in the cat carrier. I supposed he was angry with me and didn't want to come out, so I didn't think anything of it. Besides, some people didn't like cats.

  Selene and I walked to the front door, and she rang the doorbell. It chimed throughout the house in the descending major and minor third chords of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony.

  "Ah, so he's got some culture," I said.

  Selene laughed. "Let's hope he's home."

  The door opened to reveal a man wearing flannel pajama bottoms, a stained white T-shirt, and a flannel robe, which he tied as he looked us over. His gray and black hair stuck out at awkward angles from his head, and his eyes were bloodshot and bagged. Whatever he'd taken to sleep, it was still with him.

  "C'help you?" he mumbled. The fog of dreams still surrounded his aura, which I only saw for a second before it blinked out of sight. That's how my third eye worked far from home—in spurts rather than consistently. I'd be a disappointment to any investigative team unless I could channel more energy to it, but I was still adjusting.

  "Hi, I'm Se—Serena Rogers," Selene said. "This is my associate Farrah Pendragon. We're private investigators and were wondering if you could answer some questions for us."

  He ran a hand over his face, and his fingers whispered against his gray-mottled black stubble. "'Bout what?"

  "About the lab you used to work for," Selene said. "The secret one, you know. We've been hired by the government to look into it."

  Her excuse sounded flimsy to me, so I gave him a little glamour push, nothing hard—he still had plenty of room to make his choice—but he nodded and stepped back.

  "'Bout wanting to talk about that place. No one will listen to me."

  We followed him into a house that seemed too light and airy to house its occupant. Light wood, wide arches, and white walls made it look bigger than it was. I'd used the same techniques in my cottage when I'd had it built, oh, a few hundred years prior.

  "Please have a seat. Coffee?" he asked.

  "No, thank you," Selene and I chorused as we sat on the tan leather couch he'd indicated.

  "Fine. I want some." He went into the kitchen and called, "Ask your questions, ladies
! I'm listening."

  Selene and I looked at each other. We really should have planned that out better.

  "What can you tell us about working in Doctor Cimex's lab?" Selene finally shouted back.

  After a long pause, his voice floated back to us. "Nothing. I signed an NDA." He came back, again tying his robe. He appeared more alert, the red gone from his eyes. Had he made coffee or done some sort of speed in the kitchen?

  "But you said you wanted to talk, and no one would listen," I said.

  "Right." He ran his hand over his hair. "I'm sorry, I'd just woken up from a bad dream." He shrugged, hands out. "I'm afraid I can't tell you anything. Doctors Lawrence, Graves, and Cimex were a joy to work for. Too bad I had to leave."

  "And why was that?" Selene asked.

  "Oh, you know…" He looked up like the answer was on the ceiling. "Family stuff?"

  Selene and I traded another glance. Something was definitely wrong.

  "You are Mickey Michaels, right?" I asked.

  "Yep, that's me, Mickey." He stabbed at his chest with this thumb.

  Then it hit me… He'd gone to make coffee, but by now we should have heard and smelled it brewing. But there was nothing.

  "Well, we're sorry to have bothered you," Selene said. We stood and moved toward the front door. "Please let us know if you can think of something."

  "How? You haven't given me a card or anything." He held out his hand. "I'll take one, if you please."

  This had gotten even stranger, and I had a wide reference range for strange. Selene and I hurried toward the door, but he moved quickly and blocked us. "Come on, now, ladies," he said. "You don't want to leave so soon. We've just started to have fun." He reached into his robe pocket, and—

  A yowling mass of gray fur appeared out of nowhere and attacked his head. He stumbled away, trying to fight off the cat, and the revolver he'd been about to pull on us clattered to the floor. Selene kicked it away. I couldn't have touched it—too much of the metal I couldn't tolerate—but she could have at least used it to cover us.

  Selene pulled open the door, and I followed her. "Raleigh!" I shouted. The sudden weight on my shoulder told me he'd joined me, and this time I didn't mind the sensation of his claws digging into my shoulder.