Hidden Gem

by Lissa Kasey

  Jackson had shown up just after Shane got the results back. He was pissed about something, but Shane was too baffled by Candy’s test, and Aki’s, to care. Aki’s….

  That was a clusterfuck. DNA did not match to the dead Ino kid, not unless it had mutated itself over about a million times. Shane had a friend who specialized in genetic mutations looking over the results from Aki’s test. It didn’t match anyone in any traceable database. In fact, Aki wasn’t human. Not according to the DNA breakdown. His code matched nothing that Shane’s scientist friends had ever seen. He was pretty sure that if the ISS got a hold of Aki, they’d probably never let him go. Not only did he appear to have psi-mutation strains in his DNA, but he also had A-M strains. Impossible, as the two seemed to kill the host when mixed or mutate the host so far that they really became some sort of monster.

  Shane spent most of his weekend reading through every article he could find on genetic mutation, the psi strains, and their effect on DNA evolution. All hypothetical. Theories not even begun to be tested yet. Or so they claimed.

  “You can’t just take people’s medical files, McNaughton. Do you have any idea what the higher-ups will do if they find out?” Jackson was ranting while he pawed through the pile. “Medical info is top secret.”

  “To anyone not government. I have good hacker friends.” Shane had no idea what to look for, so Page was scanning the history for red flags. They’d already matched up half the kids with a suspicious slew of surgeries. Except Candy. No record of a surgery for him. But the kid had spent some time in a sexual orientation reassignment camp. Almost as bad as the concentration camps. “What do you know about clones, Taylor? How much does the ISS know?”

  “Citizen class or soldier class? Two very different animals.”

  Shane blinked. “I’ve been researching all day, and there’s nothing about classes of clones.”

  Jack waved his hand like the idea of it was absurd. “Of course not. Like the ISS would allow the general public to have that sort of knowledge. It’s just like the A-Ms, people would panic.”

  “So you believe that keeping the public in the dark is protecting them, or us?”

  He glanced up. “I’m not stupid, Shane. It’s us we’re protecting. We’re a minority just like the psis. Look how the world treats them.”

  Shane didn’t mention that Jack seemed not all that comfortable with them either. “So what’s the difference between the clones? Is there a way to tell from DNA?”

  “One of the dead kids was a clone?”

  “Yeah.” Unless Candy was lying and he was the clone, but how could anyone tell?

  “DNA is mostly the same. I heard you could have a geneticist look at it and they’d pull out differences, small variables or mutations. But really it’s by personality. I’ve met a few before. Soldier class. Cold. Nothing at home in their eyes. They take orders, and that’s it. Ability to think and reason is extremely limited. Some say it’s because they lack a soul, and scientifically we’ve found no way to reproduce that, but it’s more likely a mutation similar to ours, something just not functioning right. Citizen class is meant to look and act human, but the technology just isn’t there yet. They sort of go overboard with emotion. Like love borders on being a crazy stalker and anger makes them homicidal.” Jack dug through the stack that belonged to Candy. “Holy fuck, this is Candy!”

  Shane nodded and pulled up his com unit to fire off a quick message to the friend he had looking over Aki’s code. “He’s alive and well. The real one at least.”

  Jack jumped out of the chair and went to the large computerized wall. “I remember reading something about the Michaelsons lately.” He typed in a few things, and the wall erupted with newspaper articles about Michaelson as a senator and then, of late, the murder of his daughter. “This was it. Victoria was murdered. Rumor has it that her brother did it in a jealous rage. Something about finding her kissing another boy. And incest, that’s a scandal the senator didn’t need.”

  Candy’s sister was dead? Shane pulled up the article and a dozen others like it, scanning through them until his gut clenched with the realization. Ino wasn’t looking for a missing kid. He was looking for a killer. That was the reason the detective who was a former soldier had been sent to find Candy. Did Candy know his sister was dead? Hell, was Candy really Candy?

  “Can someone at the ISS tell me which is which? Can they look at the code and tell me which one is the clone and which one is really Cameron Jr?”

  “I don’t know. Probably. Is Candy exhibiting homicidal behavior?”

  Pushy, easy to anger, yes, but homicidal no. “I don’t think he knows about his sister.” Aki said Candy mentioned missing her. Shane needed to talk to Ino. “If someone killed the bad Candy, how bad does that make them?”

  “Since they killed a whole bunch of others, I’d say pretty bad. Unless you think the rest of these were clones gone wild also?” He pulled out a file for the third body they’d found, a young man from a fairly normal family who’d had the eye-dyeing surgery. “So our serial is killing kids who had successful surgery to mask their psi abilities. That’s your theory?”

  “Fits seven of them so far.”

  Jack grabbed the two printed sheets of Cameron’s DNA. “I’ll head to the ISS and ask some questions. You had that detective looking for him, right? Which him is the man looking for? And what happens if the bad guy realizes he got the wrong one?”

  That’s what Shane needed to find out and soon.

  AKI SAT down to dinner with Paris nearly an hour before the rest of the guests were to arrive. Paris always liked to have his back to a wall so no one could come up behind him, and the restaurant had cleared a party room for him. Aki kept his thoughts centered on Paris’s voice and, when he wasn’t talking, his breath. He barely noticed the restaurant and didn’t acknowledge the waitstaff, though he vaguely recalled them complimenting Paris on his date. He enjoyed being so centered on someone else that he had no space left in his head to dredge up the past and all its horrible memories.

  Paris took Aki’s left hand and put it at his back, under his shirt to touch bare skin. The calming force of rain fell over Aki. This rain was thicker, a strong downpour instead of the gentle drops he was used to. “I have a theory, Misaki, about your inability to get inside my head. Pay attention to the rain, I will take care of the rest of your needs tonight. I will ask you questions later.”

  “Yes, Sir,” Aki acknowledged. Opening his mind wide was like staring out a window at a storm that had rolled in. There were wind gusts, and rain puddled in the streets and pounded windows. He only noticed the arrival of their guests because of the way the storm changed. Milder for some, more intense for others. Aki almost dozed in the soothing downpour. Food came. Paris fed him small bites. He wasn’t hungry; instead he preferred to wade his way through the rain. He could hold his hand out in the gentle stream and feel it caress his palm. The harder storm came down like pinpricks of glass. Aki drew away from that one, waiting for the worst to pass and the trickle to return.

  Paris suddenly took Aki’s hand and pulled it away from his skin, leaving Aki in a daze, blinking at the man. The table was filled with rich-looking men in expensive suits, but no one spoke. They simply stared at Aki. Aki lowered his eyes to the table. He didn’t need to look up to know he’d serviced some of the men at the table.

  “Everyone has been telling me how lovely you look tonight, Aki.” Paris squeezed his wrist.

  “Thank you, Sir.”

  “So very obedient,” one of the men said.

  “He’s always so aloof at the Gem,” another replied.

  “Indeed, gentlemen. Misaki is the rarest of companions. Lovely beyond measure, obedient, and skilled. But I didn’t bring him along to remind you all of the benefits of the Hidden Gem. I brought him to show you what can be done with a street urchin, someone cast aside to rot and die by everyone, only to be scooped up and polished to what you see today.”

  “I can’t believe you picked him up off the s
treet, Hansworth. He’s too refined, too pretty for that.”

  He hadn’t always been that way. Aki stared at the pristine tablecloth, letting the words filter over them. He was okay with being Paris’s living example. He knew Paris wanted to help others. And Aki would probably have been dead without the hand that Paris had provided. Every man at the table save one would have beaten him to death had they ever seen the mark on his wrist. Forever damaged goods no matter how shiny the package.

  Aki felt someone’s eyes on him, not the senators, but he got no sense of movement or sound from that end of the table. If someone was there, they weren’t speaking and barely breathing. Paris’s touch returned, easing Aki back into a gentle shower. By the time the senators were getting up, shaking hands, and moving toward the door, he really had begun to doze.

  Only when the last of them left did Paris finally turn toward the end of the table where Aki could still feel someone watching him. “Detective Ino, you’ve been extraordinarily patient.”

  “Interesting things come to those who wait.” The man’s voice was mellow but slightly accented. Paris’s withdrawn touch left Aki searching for sound to focus on. He was tempted to look at the man but feared making eye contact by accident when he’d been specifically told not to.

  “You’re looking for a missing person and think that somehow I might know where they are?”

  “I’ve been told you do rescues. Pull kids off the street. Give them a chance at life, education, jobs, like you were telling the senators, and your young friend here seems to be living proof of that. I simply wondered if you might have seen the one I’m looking for.” Something slid across the table.

  Paris flipped open a folder. A moment later he closed it.

  “Why are you looking for him?”

  “His sister is dead. His father wants him to know. Wants him to come home. There’s another.” The man paused. “A special project that is without supervision. We are unsure of the status. I’m to terminate it if I find it.”

  “Hmm. Indeed. I will speak to him first.”

  “Then you know where he is?”

  “I do.” Paris smiled. Aki smiled with him, glancing up briefly at his Sir’s face.

  “Then let me ask another question.”

  “Okay.”

  “The boy beside you. Where did you find him?”

  “Misaki escaped a Southern concentration camp. He hitchhiked his way north. When I found him, he was nearly starved to death in the slums. The cops came through only a few hours later and threw all the rest out of town. Half of them froze to death.” Paris gripped Aki’s arm. “No matter what I do, I can’t save them all. I have to keep reminding myself of that.”

  “You didn’t try to find his family?”

  “He’s from the South and was in a camp. I doubt they’d want him. He doesn’t remember them anyway. Misaki has made a new home for himself. A new life.”

  “As a whore?”

  Paris shrugged. “We’re all whores, Detective Ino. Some for sex, most for money. Really, which is the shadier of the two? Hmm? Perhaps you’ll tell me why he interests you so much. You’ve stared at him all night. I can set up an appointment for you when he returns to the Gem if you like. Be aware his services are limited.” Paris lifted up Aki’s chin. “Look at the detective, Misaki.”

  Aki glanced up, meeting the startled gaze of the new man. He was handsome, but not the scruffy, large man Aki thought of as the Detective. Pretty, Asian, but blue-eyed. Pain snarled through his head, causing Aki to look down and grip his temple.

  He was in a hospital, and his head hurt. A tired-looking man held his hand. Doctors passed the open doorway, and nurses seemed to look in their direction. All the words were hushed, the mood somber. It felt like they were all just waiting for him to die.

  “Are you all right?” Paris asked, shaking him out of the memory.

  “Headache,” Aki whispered. And just as suddenly, his nose began to bleed. That had never happened before. For a moment he watched it drip down onto the nice dress Paris had chosen for him, not realizing what it was. Plump drops of crimson and the warm heat on his upper lip made him reach for his nose only to pull his hand away covered in blood. And then the world was swallowed up by the color red. One second he was sitting beside Paris in a nice restaurant, the next he was back in the camp, screaming in pain as he was tortured. Blood poured from him. Thankfully everything went black.

  FIFTEEN

  SHANE HAD never broken so many traffic laws in his life. He’d barely parked his car before he was out of it and running toward the entrance of the ISS Hospital. Jack had called in somewhat of a panic.

  “Aki’s been admitted to the psi hospital at the ISS. Came in with Hansworth,” Jack told Shane.

  “How bad is he hurt? Did you see him?”

  “Just a glimpse as they wheeled him in. He was covered in blood. Rothnow is on the way. I heard Paris talking to him on the phone in the hallway. He said something about Aki just starting to bleed and they couldn’t get it to stop. Detective Ino came in with them.”

  Shit. And if they found out how insane Aki’s DNA was….

  “He’s on lockdown, Shane. Restricted. They won’t let me anywhere near him.”

  Which means they knew. Dammit. “I’m on my way.”

  It had only taken him twenty minutes to get across town, but he had the cold hand of dread pressing on his spine. Bleeding? How? Why? Paris was known for being a bit of a sadist, but no one had ever been admitted to any hospital for something he’d done. Shane knew because he kept tabs on anyone in Aki’s life. The realization made him pause. He really did, didn’t he? Stuck his nose in where it didn’t belong. Aki wasn’t his. And didn’t that just piss him off? He sighed and took the stairs instead of the elevator. Ten floors should have had him huffing and puffing, but he was just too numb.

  Hansworth sat in one of the waiting room’s sterile plastic chairs. Ino leaned against the wall.

  Taylor came around the corner and grabbed Shane’s arm before he could approach the other two men. “You realize your eyes are changing?”

  Shane blinked. It took a moment of focus, but he pulled it back and suddenly his vision was dull again. Human. Damn. How hadn’t he noticed the change? When had it started? He was nowhere near cycle.

  “What the fuck is happening to you?” Jack whispered. “I’ve never seen anyone do that outside of a movie special effect.”

  “Find anything about Aki?” Shane asked instead. He’d deal with his own issues later.

  “No. I’m not ranked high enough to push my way in. And if they aren’t letting me in, they are not going to let you in.”

  Shane pulled away from the man and headed toward Hansworth. “What the hell happened? What did you do to him?” Paris stood up, adjusting his shirt and cuffs like he’d hate to be seen as less than perfect. Shane knew those were the signs of a trained companion, a moment to reflect and prepare, put on the mask. Aki did it all the time, but he usually touched his hair. They all did it, just in different ways. “Did you hurt him?”

  “Detective McNaughton, I presume?” Paris offered his hand. “I don’t believe we’ve formally met, though I was going to call once the weekend was over, as we share a similar interest.”

  “Doubt it. What did you do to Aki?” Shane ignored the offered greeting.

  Paris dropped his hand. “Believe it or not, nothing. We were at dinner. I’ve been keeping him focused on me, trying to clear his head, and he’d been maintaining his subspace nicely most of the day. I simply requested he look at Detective Ino, and his nose began to bleed.”

  “He’s here for a nosebleed?” They’d locked him up in the ISS for a fucking nosebleed? Shane wanted to punch something.

  “Not a nosebleed like I’ve ever seen before. I’ve never seen anyone lose that much blood before. He passed out, but even so, bled through a dozen cloth napkins. The EMTs had to keep him elevated so the blood wouldn’t flood his brain. He mentioned just seconds before that he had a headache.”
Paris adjusted his shirt again, but this time Shane noticed swatches of blood staining the sleeves and chest. One arm was completely red-brown, nails deeply embedded with the dried substance. “He’s been in subspace for longer periods of time with no issues like this. It’s a state of mind, not a physical function. He has been under a lot of pressure of late. Memories of his days in the camp and that sort of thing. I was simply trying to give him a bit of peace.”

  “I don’t understand. How does that cause him to bleed like his brain is exploding?” was all Shane could think to say.

  “That is why we are here. As he is a psi, he’s required to be admitted here for all medical emergencies.” Paris glanced to Ino. “Insight, Detective?”

  Ino shook his head.

  “He’s not your brother,” Shane said suddenly. “I checked. His DNA doesn’t match.”

  “My brother died a long time ago.”

  “But he looks like him. I have the documents,” Shane insisted.

  “My brother is dead. He died of a brain tumor at the age of sixteen more than fifty years ago.”

  “Was there ever a special project created from his DNA?” Paris asked.

  “No,” Ino answered immediately.

  Special project? “Wait, you mean a clone? Is Aki a clone?”

  Both Paris and Ino shook their heads in unison. “Not possible,” Paris said. “He’d have been dead by now or homicidal. Citizen-class clones are made to think and act, but the emotions come across too strong for them so they snap. Shelf life is little more than six months. Medical issues are also amplified. So if the original had brain cancer, the clone would be brain-dead almost immediately. And while Misaki’s DNA is unusual, it’s not the most unique the ISS has seen.”

  “The government knows about this? They know about Aki?”

  “The government knows about everything, Detective. It’s what it means to be government.” Paris began to pace. “They keep a lot from normal citizens to avoid panic. And trust me, there’s plenty for people to panic about. Misaki, however, is very far down that list.”