by Lissa Kasey
“So you’ll be there with me?” Aki was so relieved to not be alone.
“For the first few sessions. Since your ability is much stronger, you’ll have more classes to take, more training. But for now I will be attending with you. I’m quite excited to see if I can actually do anything other than this ability to block you from my thoughts.” Paris walked him to the car, followed by a slew of bodyguards. They got a limo today. Aki smiled as he slid across the plush leather seat. “I will arrive early on Thursday to help you prepare for your class and your date.”
“You know about that? I mean, is it okay? For Shane and I to go out?”
“We have worked out the details. You only need to go and enjoy yourself.” Paris sat next to him and let the guards pile in around them as they prepared to leave. “I will likely ask you questions about the date once it’s over. You will have curfew guidelines, which the detective has been given. Mostly we must know where you are at any time. And Bart expects you to attend the bonfire next week, so no dates for that day, though the detective may attend and dance with you if he so wishes.”
Would Shane dance with him? Aki smiled at the thought of the rough Irishman moving to the drumbeats. “What about work? I told Bart I’m okay to work, but he says no. I really should do something.”
“You are, Misaki.” Paris patted his wrist. “Pay attention in class. Work hard to control your powers, and you’re doing exactly what we need you to.”
CANDY SMILED as he sat down across from the handsome young doctor who was quickly becoming a regular for him. “Perhaps I can recommend a good meal for you to enjoy before we head upstairs?”
The man smiled and ran his hands through his dark hair. “I’m sure whatever you choose would be lovely.”
Candy grabbed the menu and pointed out several dishes that he knew to be beyond divine. The doctor chose one of the more expensive meals. “Next week is the bonfire,” Candy said and poured him a glass of wine. He sent the dinner order to the kitchen with one of the guards. “Everyone is welcome. We’re not allowed to service anyone, but I can dance with whoever asks.”
“I’ve never been a big fan of fire, but dancing sounds nice. Especially if I have such a wonderful partner.”
“All the companions will be there. A lot of the regulars as well. Tons of food and alcohol. It’s worth it if you’ve never been to one.” Candy had to admit he loved looking at the man before him. Sure, the doctor was no Detective McNaughton, more on the slim side than the linebacker type, but he had a nice body, pretty face, pleasant enough demeanor. Candy could find someone consistent, right? Someone to make him smile like Aki smiled when he thought of the cop.
The funeral had meant a lot of emotional changes for him. He no longer thought of the Gem as his place of employment. He wanted it to be his. He wanted to control it, improve it, and make it bigger. How many people could he help by providing them with good-paying jobs? He would begin buying the other brothels one by one, closing down the worst of them and taking care of the companions as they should be. In fact, he had visions of restructuring the entire red-light district into something full of theaters, restaurants, shopping, and, of course, the sex trade. Cleaner, less taboo, more like an amusement park for adults.
“Your friend Misaki will be at the bonfire as well? I’ve heard so much about him and this brothel but have yet to see the jewel of the Hidden Gem even in passing. The two of you are legendary outside these walls, but perhaps his light has begun to fade?”
Candy frowned at the man, wondering not for the first time why the man always found a way to bring up Aki every time they met. “He’ll be there. He’s been on medical leave and in training. But I’m sure you’ll see him at the bonfire. He usually only dances with other companions because his psi ability is touch sensitive.”
The man reached out and grabbed Candy’s hand. “As long as I get to dance with you, that’s all that matters. Now, you’ll share dinner with me, won’t you?”
TWENTY-ONE
SHANE MET Julie Thruthers at Artie’s to discuss her missing best friend Daniel. She was a pretty girl, brunette, thin in that totally boring teenage way, and wore makeup that would have better been placed on a companion. She’d agreed to meet him, but Shane wondered how close they really were. Friends or something more?
“Thanks for meeting me, Julie.” He waved LuAnn over to deliver coffee. “Order whatever you’d like. On me.”
“Thanks, Detective. I’m glad you’re helping out. Daniel was a good guy.” She didn’t even glance at the menu. “We’ve been friends since we were little. I knew him before he had the surgery. It was harder then, to be his friend, because everyone treated him so bad.”
Shane nodded. “So you couldn’t publicly show that you were friends until after his surgery.”
“It sounds bad when you say it that way, but yes. I don’t know if you’ve seen how people treat psis, but it’s pretty bad. And Danny didn’t even have any cool powers or anything like you hear about on the vid channels.” Julie flipped her hair over her shoulder. “He was pretty normal. Liked to run, won a ton of awards. Super smart. Popular after his eyes were fixed and he switched schools.”
“So you and he were pretty close?”
“Hung out almost every night.”
“Did you see anyone unusual around before he disappeared? A new friend? Or even someone who just seemed to keep popping up where you guys were?” LuAnn dropped off a batch of sugar buns, and Shane dug in. “Anyone he was taking calls from that you didn’t know?”
She looked thoughtful, shook her head. “No. Not that I can think of. He went to school and practice, and sometimes we’d just hang around the football field at school, otherwise we were home.” She glanced around like she was looking to see who might be watching them. “He said he was going to meet with a doctor. I thought maybe something was wrong with his eyes or maybe it was a follow-up. He’s never sick. Has good attendance awards and everything.”
“What made you think this wasn’t his regular doctor? He probably had someone he went to for exams and stuff.” Again it was back to the doctors.
“He said something about the ISS.”
“So a doctor from the ISS? That would make sense if there was an issue with his eyes.”
Julie shrugged. “He saw just fine. We had archery class the day before he disappeared, and he hit a bull’s-eye every time.”
“He sounds very athletic. Was he the sort of guy that others could easily overpower?”
“Not at all. He was in martial arts most of his life. Gave it up to run so he could get a scholarship for college instead of just contracting himself out to his dad’s business. When he was a kid, he got bullied a lot because of his eyes. But the surgery and lots of self-defense training changed that.”
The kid had worked hard not to become a victim only to really become one. Fuck. Shane sighed. “So no clue who the doctor was or what it was about?” He could call the ISS; they might not tell him anything. But there were other ways to obtain information.
Julie shook her head. “Sorry. I hope you find him. I hope he’s okay.”
Shane hoped so too, but the pain in his gut said otherwise.
THE WALLS were up. The stench of paint irritated his nose, but he’d set up his computer and all his office stuff in the first back room they’d finished. Shane could hear the construction workers upstairs, pounding, laying wood floors and tile, adding fixtures and baseboards. The computer system that scanned and monitored the house had been checked a dozen times. And Shane was already working. He’d been scouring everything on record for his first case as a PI. The kid, Daniel, had been taken shortly after Aki had been admitted to the ISS. The ransom was never paid, but no body ever turned up. In fact, there had never been a second demand, and the note requested a far smaller sum of money than any of the previous cases, almost like it was an afterthought.
Shane had spoken to every family member, friend, or acquaintance of the kid and turned up nothing. Daniel had been good in
school, kept his nose out of trouble, and really just seemed very average. He’d never stepped foot in a brothel and, other than the surgery to fix his eyes, never been in the hospital. Years of experience told Shane he was missing something. There had to be more than the fact that these kids had the surgery. What did this guy really want? And why did Daniel’s eerie similarity to Misaki Itou make Shane’s gut clench in fear?
The only lead he had was that Daniel had met with an ISS doctor for unknown reasons just before being taken. The ISS had no record of the meeting, nor did they know what doctor it might have been. Was Daniel beginning to manifest powers and that’s why he’d met secretly with some unknown doctor? Or had the doctor initiated the meeting? Shane had called in favors on hunches, but nothing had come back yet.
Page had sent him what little the cops had, which was almost nothing. He’d been poring over it for days. If he’d been assured of Aki’s state of mind, he’d have gone to the psi for a hint of direction. Though the two were similar in appearance, they couldn’t be more opposite. Daniel had been athletic, a runner, super smart, and popular. He was more of a social butterfly than Aki could ever pretend to be. Something wasn’t right. The killer had had time to create a new base, but he hadn’t targeted a rich family with this one. No one else had gone missing. Did he pick Daniel because he looked like the companion Misaki Itou? Or was that just a coincidence?
Shane still had people looking at all the DNA from Aki and Candy. No one knew what to make of Aki, but Candy was the real Cameron Jr. And he had psi strains in his DNA. Not surprising, as Shane had heard Aki say more than once that he got nothing from Candy other than brightly colored clouds. Maybe that was the key.
He’d spoken to Paris to find out that Aki had attended his first class at the ISS and worked very hard to learn what the instructor taught about focus and shielding. But if there was a person on the planet more capable of focusing than Misaki Itou, Shane had yet to meet them.
He glared at the calendar on his computer, knowing the bonfire was coming. He should have felt the change eating at him by now. Only it wasn’t. Not like it usually did, at least. He could force the change early if needed, and he would if he had to so he could attend the bonfire, if only to guard Aki. He wondered for the first time if the stress from the job had made it harder to control for all those years or if something had really changed in him. He’d felt different since the night he’d slept with Aki in his bed but had written that off to unacknowledged emotions. Although maybe there was something else….
Grey knocked on the door before stepping inside. “Almost done. Even got the panic room installed down in the basement, reinforced and up to code. Inspector comes out tomorrow morning to look over everything.”
Shane got up and reached out to shake the man’s hand. “Your work is amazing. Thank you for being on top of this for me.”
“No problem. It’s a little early in the year yet so we didn’t have much lined up. I’ll be here for the walkthrough so that anything that needs to be fixed will be corrected right away.” He glanced around the room. “Good choice with the building. They don’t make structures this sound anymore. With the walls reinforced, it will withstand a minor earthquake, and the lower levels are bomb resistant, so the upper levels are safe. Fire escape attached on the parking-lot side for emergencies. You’ll want to go out every few months to check that the ladders are sliding and don’t need to be greased. But all in all, you’re ready for World War Four from here.”
“I hope it never comes to that. Living through the Third was bad enough.”
“Yeah. That’s some shit I’ll never understand.” Grey knew about A-Ms because his daughter’s ex-boyfriend, the one who’d kidnapped her, had been one. That A-M had died during transformation while in prison at the ISS. “Bea told me to say hi. She and the kids are well.” Bea, his daughter, was now in her midthirties, married with three kids, and a scientist for the ISS, and though Shane didn’t know what division, he did know it was high up. Grey pulled a stack of folded papers out of his pocket. “Wanted me to give these to you. No idea what it means. She told me you’d get it, and to burn them when you’re done.”
Shane nodded and took the papers, planning to pore over whatever Bea sent him once the crews left for the night. “Can I sleep here tonight, or should I wait for the inspection?”
“You’ll be fine here. Probably don’t want to move furniture in until late tomorrow, but the building is safe enough. All the permits are posted out front.”
The windows were now unbreakable video glass that would darken at night for safety, display postings like the permits or hours of operation, and act as a filter to the outside world. It cost a fortune, but Paris had footed the bill, insisting that no one would want to hire a technophobe for a detective. It was really the safety features and how they would protect Aki that sold Shane. He’d had it installed throughout the house and even the mirrors in the bathrooms. The glass was part of the computer monitoring system, which could read things like body temperature, stress levels, and heart rates. It was smart enough to call the police if someone was in distress without being asked. Ideal for an ex-cop turned PI with a soon-to-be former companion working as his secretary.
“Is the inspection going over the computers again?”
“Basic function. The monitoring company has been through a few times. I’d say give them a call once the inspection is over and have them test the system thoroughly before you move in. Better to find any bugs in the programming before lugging all the furniture in. You’ll just have to move the furniture for the inspection.”
Shane nodded. “Thanks for everything, Grey.”
The man offered his hand again, which Shane shook again. “See you tomorrow, then.”
Once Grey left, Shane opened the stack of papers Bea had sent. Handwritten. Her scrawl was familiar as he’d had her help more than once before. This was a list of names. Doctors who’d come from the South and now all worked in the North. A very short list of only seven. The North had rigorous guidelines when it came to medicine. All had to be ISS certified. None of these doctors did eye-dyeing surgeries, which meant little to Shane. Just because the kids had the procedure didn’t mean that was the doctor cutting them up. No, he was looking for someone with a vengeance against either senators or kids who’d had the surgery successfully.
His phone rang. “McNaughton,” he answered.
“Have some interesting details on your boy.” The caller was his geneticist friend who’d been looking over Aki’s profile.
“Interesting in what way? You said he was a mess. Not human.”
“I was wrong. Baseline is human. Not clone. His DNA has just been so manipulated that he’s evolved. Like what humans will probably be in a thousand years.”
“So he’s what? Superhuman?”
“Essentially yes, but no. His DNA eats disease for breakfast, yes. But there are weaknesses that always come out when mutations like this form. Just like with you A-Ms, there’s a cycle. I think him going into the hospital with that tumor issue was part of that. A computer rebooting, his body was breaking down, and he needed a restart.”
“But how did he get that way? Who is he? Are there others like him?” And more importantly, “Will he get worse?”
“No idea on most of that. I’d say break it down and you have the kid, Asaki Ino, who died all those years ago. Basic code is the same. Add the mutations on top and a bunch of time and there you go. One of my colleagues was talking about the cryogenics experimentation they were doing years ago. Said they put everyone who died on ice just to use them as guinea pigs for testing things like the WWIII plague, psi and A-M manipulation. And that was here in the North. Original ISS, top-secret stuff. No one wanted to know their dead loved ones were being used like that.”
No kidding. Shane sighed. “At least he’s not a clone. But if he was Asaki Ino, how did they bring him back to life?”
“No idea. Whatever was done there is buttoned-up tight. Might not even be documented.
The stuff on clones is hard enough to find; they’ve got it coded and security wrapped in so many ways. The way clones go nuts is a dead giveaway. Longest I think one has lasted is five years. Your boy is not a clone. He doesn’t have any of the obvious duplicating cells. If the government is in on making something like this kid, they really are breeding a supersoldier.”
But why Aki? Nothing about him screamed lethal. The kid was small, pretty, delicate, and submissive. Shane couldn’t see him hurting anyone.
“Did you know the camp he was in died suddenly about the same time your boy left? Not a single guard or anyone left. All dead. There are rumors that when troops were sent in to investigate, they found everyone had just dropped dead where they were standing—doctors, guards, detainees. Yet your boy walked out of there alive and pretty much unscratched.”
Did that mean Aki had done something? Post-cognitive psis didn’t really have the power to manipulate others. They just saw what had already transpired. So how could Misaki have killed everyone all at once? Maybe Misaki wasn’t the only one who made it out of the camp.
“That’s not all. That camp, the shutdown, was almost ten years ago. No one has been out there since.”
“Ten years? That can’t be possible.” Aki had left the camp a little over two years ago. And the kid certainly didn’t look that old. But he did have A-M genes. Shane glanced down at his list of doctors, wondering just what their history was. Things were starting to line up, and none of it was looking good. He had a pretty big puzzle piece that he had to look into, and he knew there was a train that could get him there in little more than three hours.
TWENTY-TWO
MANNY WALKED Aki to Artie’s for a cup of coffee and some cheesecake. The guard wasn’t much for conversation, but he was really good at keeping the world at bay. Aki had yet to hear anything more from Shane. Bart insisted that he was to stay away from vid screens with news or anything negative on them. Aki had plenty to do anyway: reorganizing his and Candy’s room, practicing the stuff he’d learned in his first psi class, and meeting with Paris regularly for discipline.