by Black, Regan
"That's a no obligation offer, Mira. I don't hand them out often."
She waited, uncertain, but he was better at the silence thing. She heard herself filling the gap. "After our, umm, errand, I just need to pick up a few things at Leanore's. Is that okay?"
"And you'll come back here."
She nodded, but she got the feeling they both knew she didn't intend to stay indefinitely. There was something eerie in the way the smuggler could read people.
"That's fine. About that favor I mentioned when you first arrived."
"Yes?" She went completely still, refusing to let him see how badly she wanted to get moving.
"Trina makes us even," he looked away and cleared his throat again. When he looked back to her, his eyes were shining with unshed tears. "Thank you. For whatever you did for her."
Mira smiled, waiting for him to regain his composure and add to her to-do list.
"She says I may actually owe you. We can figure out the specifics when you return."
"Sure."
He grinned and opened the passenger door for her. "Safe travel."
Mira didn't waste any time, she slid into the seat and willed whoever was coming with them to hurry.
She expected the grumbling Callahan would be part of this trek and she tried to hide her relief when Jameson and Cali arrived without him. As they approached, the hair on the back of her neck stood up in warning. They were both dressed for action, in dark sweaters, cargo pants and boots, making her feel like the ignorant civilian in the jeans, cable sweater, running shoes and parka all donated by Micky.
Behind the wheel, Cleveland muted the police radio and dialed in an oldies station. He was humming along with a song she'd never heard as he put the van into gear.
When they emerged from the hideout to the city this time, Mira was surprised it was already dark. Insulated by Micky's comprehensive set up, she hadn't given a thought to the time.
"Will the morgue still be open?"
"Never really closes," Cleveland replied.
Well, of course not. She knew that. Someone was on staff twenty-four-seven even in hospital morgues. She twisted around in her seat to talk to Jameson and Cali. They were buckled into forward facing seats and behind them a wealth of police equipment lined both sides of the evidence van.
"This isn't just a mock up," she said.
"It's real," Cali confirmed. "Not sure how Slick Micky got his hands on it, but Brian will be pissed when he finds out."
Mira believed that. "What exactly does Callahan want me to do?"
Cali and Jameson exchanged a glance before Cali answered. "He wants you to examine the bodies of the gang and the enforcers. Maybe there's some insight that will help us interrupt Montalbano and put us on Conrad's trail."
She'd never dealt much with the deceased, though she had lost a few patients in her career. She wasn't sure anything she could do or find would be much help. "Did he give any clue as to what he's expecting?"
"An instant tox screen," Jameson said, reaching forward to pat her shoulder. "Just kidding. We'll go in, let you learn whatever you can, and then we're out of there."
"We all know it's a long shot, Mira," Cali said.
"Great." Mira faced forward and tried to ignore the doubts racing around her head. Sure, she'd been able to do something completely different with Nathan, but that didn't mean she could do anything helpful at the morgue.
Lost in thought, she didn't realize they were heading out of the city until the bright skyline was well behind them. Doubt changed to dread. "Aren't the bodies at the city morgue?"
Cleveland shrugged. "A job like this, I just follow the GPS."
Mira tried to swallow the lump in her throat, but it wouldn't budge. She sat there, a prisoner to the task ahead. There was no way they were headed to –
"Brian got the bodies diverted to the morgue at the new Army hospital west of town." Cali said. "They've got all the newest toys and the best security."
She made it sound like no big deal, while Mira broke out in a cold sweat under her parka. No quick meditation or bio-feedback exercise eased her growing anxiety. Not even looking at it as a positive development helped.
Whether Callahan suspected her intentions and asked Brian to move the bodies on purpose or not, they were headed toward the very place she'd hoped to find her father.
* * *
He recognized the knock on the door as his second in command and answered accordingly. The younger man's face was enough to tell him the bodies of his top enforcer team were not yet recovered.
An unfortunate circumstance, but he doubted anyone in public service would bother with an in depth autopsy of a couple of John Does. And Callahan's special operations unit wouldn't want the headache or publicity anymore than he did.
"We can't worry about them," he offered by way of assurance. This incident only proved why he didn't recruit enforcement team members from within his own order. "Is there news on Luther's daughter?"
"Still no trace of her, but there was activity on her bank account."
Aha! She was alive, he knew it. None of the historical accounts of healers who transformed ended in death. "A hotel maybe? A car?"
"No, sir. A modest online order from a department store. The delivery address is a restaurant in the Financial District."
"Progress, then! Most likely she will seek out her father in hopes that he can explain her transformation."
Jacob was the only person he trusted with his true motives. The others believed in the future he promised, but his second in command understood all the ramifications, all the adjustments necessary to safeguard the ideal future.
"Keep monitoring communications in the city, that restaurant, and the other areas we know she visited." Too bad she'd found the tracking device before she'd changed.
"Yes, sir. The college too?"
He leaned back in his chair, considering that location from every angle. "Yes. While the lab is useless to her, she may find familiarity or even seek sanctuary in the old residence hall."
If Conrad would only make contact, he could determine which side the lost enforcer was on. "In fact, double our efforts in that area." If they didn't find Mira, maybe they'd get lucky and find Conrad admiring his destructive handiwork.
He didn't care for the vagaries of luck, but he'd mentally shifted Conrad to a second tier concern.
"And how is Montalbano faring?"
His deputy almost sneered. "He took the formula to his team and created enough for a demonstration. It would appear he has killed five criminals in the making of a sales video."
"Ever the entrepreneur."
"Dealing death for money is more than simple business, sir."
"You see it as distasteful, which is understandable. Try to see it as I do. The petty wars of Montalbano and his intended customers will only help our ultimate cause, Jacob."
"Yes, sir."
"You'll believe me soon. His ploy will mean more opportunity for healers to be idolized as they save those who should not survive. I've sent out an alert already." Even better if this tragic formula put more healers in the intense and dangerous positions that seemed to spark radiant transformations. If just a few more could be changed and studied, he might be able to find the genetic catalyst behind transformations like Mira's.
"I know you hate to see innocents suffer." Jacob had always been a purist. He'd taken a boy with idealism and drive and molded him into the perfect champion of their cause. "Focus all of your considerable talents and resources on the girl and bring her to me. Leave Montalbano to the military."
"Yes, sir."
He smiled when the door closed behind his deputy. His wait was getting shorter. Jacob would obey his command to the letter, even going without rest until he found Luther's daughter.
* * *
Cleveland parked the van near the service entrance and pulled out an official looking briefcase. Dressed as they were, Jameson assumed Cleveland was going to get them access to the bodies with some bogus investig
ation claim.
Jameson didn't need Petra's empathic talent or Cali's background to know Mira was wound tight about the whole thing. She was walking right beside him, matching the pace, and yet he knew the moment they stopped, she wouldn't twitch so much as an eyebrow.
He reached out and caught her hand, gave it a quick squeeze. Sure enough, she jolted, blinking rapidly as if her vision had been assaulted by a flash-bang grenade. "Whatever happens, we're in it together."
She stared up at him, her deep blue eyes wide and full of uncertainty. She may as well have reached in and pulled out his heart. "I don't know what I can do here."
He knew she meant more than whatever waited for them inside the building. "Personally, I can't wait to see."
She gave her head a quick shake, sending her sleek black ponytail swinging. "That makes one of us."
His fingers itched to set the silky curtain of her hair free. "It's gotta be like anything new, scary at first and a little exciting. Right?" He had to drop her hand as they neared the entrance but he winked at her while Cleveland dealt with security at the desk. "Come on. Admit it. I saw your face when you did whatever you did for Nathan's battered nose."
That brought her smile out to play. "That was cool."
"See?" Her color was better now, making him feel easier about sending her into the unknown ahead of them.
The security guard required the standard thumbprint signature next to the names Cleveland provided. Jameson caught Cleveland's look and positioned Mira behind Cali so the correct thumb would line up with the correct name. She didn't flinch at the idea of revealing herself. He wondered if her days in the Army had given her that faith in personal records manipulation. He knew his prints had been attached to several different identities over the years and so far national security had never been compromised.
"Trust your instincts," he whispered in Mira's ear as they were led down the hall to an elevator.
"All your John Does are on the first sub level," the security guard said, swiping a badge through the lock and then handing it to Cleveland. "Don't lose that or you'll have to wait for the day shift to authorize the breach. I don't have that kind of authority. You wouldn't be the first group to spend the night with the stiffs." He chuckled a bit, apparently pleased with the memory.
"Got it," Cleveland said, as if he did this sort of thing every day. When the doors slid closed, he rolled his eyes. "Like I'd do anything to extend this errand. Do I look like dead bodies are my thing?"
"Not at all," Mira assured him, but she couldn't quite keep the amusement out of her voice.
"This place is wired almost as well as our hotel." Cleveland slid his eyes to the corner camera.
Jameson grinned and glanced down, tapping his watch. "Damn thing stopped again." It was the agreed phrase to confirm audio as well as visual surveillance was in play. They'd assumed as much and taken appropriate precautions.
He had a feedback loop ready to fool the cameras and he knew Cali had the audible distraction ready to go as well.
The elevator eased to a stop and the doors parted at their floor. The team flanked Mira in a practiced move as they escorted her to the correct door. While there were all kinds of variables because they'd never actually worked together, Callahan's quick rundown of the op assured Jameson everyone was familiar with the routine. Everyone but Mira, which was how they wanted it since they were selling her as a civilian witness.
God, he prayed that choice didn't backfire.
He wasn't sure if she had her contacts in, if they'd even survived the fire, but with so much surveillance and no logical reason for him to stop her long enough to confirm it, he'd have to hope for the best.
He felt her hesitate and gather herself, before she entered the morgue. Cleveland hit the lights and the control to black out the windows, then he locked the door behind them.
Mira shivered. Jameson patted her shoulder like he offered support to grieving witnesses every day.
Cleveland swiped the badge through the computer station and entered the case numbers of the bodies they wanted to view. Jameson marveled at the slick automated system as seven electronic locks clicked and hissed open. Rollers clacked as the set up delivered each sheet-covered John Doe to the floor level. Creepy, but it sure as hell made life easier than having to coerce or subdue an attendant. With Cali's signal confirming the security systems were fooled, he led Mira to the first two bodies.
She pulled back the sheets revealing the bloodless faces of the enforcers, but gave no indication of sympathy for either man. Her brow puckered as she concentrated.
It occurred to him he hadn't seen her this intent on a task since his brother's ruptured appendix. Though he remembered thinking she'd gone into a coma when she destroyed the tracking device her order had implanted. Not knowing how to interpret that detail, he just stood by and let her do whatever it was she did.
"Tell me again."
He jumped at her quiet order. "What?"
"How they died." She moved between the bodies, her head cocked as if she couldn't quite make a puzzle piece fit properly.
"Oh. They looked at each other and just fell over."
"Uh-huh."
Before he could defend himself, she pressed her hand, full of the pale blue light she generated now, to the temple of the man he'd considered the leader.
"What's the official COD?"
"Heart attack," Cleveland replied, reading from the monitor. "For both of them."
She looked up and gave him a wry smile. "I'm sorry for doubting you. I really thought they'd lived."
"I thought you were pissed off at the idea that I killed them."
"A little of that too, maybe." She shrugged, the light fading back into her palm as she continued to study the remains. "Either way I was wrong. It wasn't a stunt to make you believe they'd died, they really pulled it off. A feat that is considered complete myth in my order."
"But not every order," Cali added. "Or did you get that far?"
"I did, actually. And it was a rumor I first heard about during one of my Army assignments, but I had to move on before I got a chance to investigate.
"I'd also considered that whoever was giving the orders had managed to install a kill-device along the lines of my tracking implant. But this is worse."
"Because they're dedicated enough to commit suicide for their cause," Jameson said. He'd seen his share of fanatics on various assignments.
"Exactly." She covered the men once more. "It's clever. A cyanide sort of reaction in the body without the outward signs." She looked down at her palm as if she wasn't sure it belonged to her. "Hard to believe I could get anything helpful when there's no biofeedback."
"I believed," Cali said.
Jameson believed too, but seeing Mira blush, he kept it to himself. For now. "Done with these two then?"
She nodded and moved with him toward the dead gang members. Jameson heard her muttering, as she looked over each victim, but he couldn't make out any of the words. "Should I ask?"
"No. I'm just irritated anyone could willfully do this."
He understood the challenge of reconciling the facts with Dr. Luther's reputation for helping Soldiers. Jameson didn't carry much sympathy for criminals in general, but he knew Mira saw these particular deaths as senseless and unnecessary. And he agreed with the general consensus that a bleed-out bullet would be deplorable if it managed to make it into any conflict.
He watched her closely, not too surprised she took extra care, going over each body as thoroughly as a coroner. She turned suddenly to Cleveland. "I don't suppose anyone collected blood at the scene?"
Cleveland exchanged a glance with Cali and the two of them put their heads down to figure it out.
"Doesn't matter. I'm a macro-girl," she muttered.
"What does that mean?"
She didn't look away from the knife wound splitting one man's side just under his ribcage. "It means my dad has an uncanny understanding of cause and effect at the cellular level."
"
You must too." He stepped closer. "The way you fixed my brother's infection."
"It's different."
She didn't seem inclined to explain further, so he backed up and let her work. He watched her pulse a little light into a gunshot wound and he half expected it to seal itself up.
"Find out if there are any hemophiliacs in here." He turned around to ask when she stopped him. "No, wait." That light moved a bit deeper into the wound and Jameson struggled to keep his stomach in its rightful place. Seeing her work that bit of light was only marginally better than if she'd stuck her hand inside the guy. "Blood clot related deaths."
He relayed the request to Cleveland who grumbled while he inputted the search.
"The evidence van log just hit the system," Cali said. "Everything from Montabano's stunt was brought here."
Mira stopped moving. "In this room 'here'?"
"No."
Mira went back to whatever she was doing.
"Why bring evidence here?" Wary, Jameson activated his recon contacts and double checked the immediate area outside the room.
Cali's thumbs were flying over her handheld. "I'm tracking it down now."
The hallway was clear, but Jameson's battle instincts were running high. Something was off. He stood with one hand on the door, the other on his weapon, braced for anything.
"The evidence is two doors down, in some kind of lab," Cali said after another moment.
"We're alone down here," Cleveland added. "Everyone is right where the system says they should be. Next guard is due to walk the rounds in fifteen minutes."
Jameson looked at Mira. "Do you need that blood?"
"Better if I go to it," she said, without looking up. "Less chance of getting caught tampering with the chain of evidence."
He knew she wasn't telling him everything, but he couldn't push because Cleveland was opening up another body drawer.
"Here's your blood clot guy. A Navy vet."
"Then why is he in a John Doe morgue?" Jameson rolled the steel gurney closer to the dead gang member Mira was evaluating.
"According to the system," Cleveland said, "he died yesterday at the VA hospital, no family to notify yet."