Hidden Gem

by Lissa Kasey

  “You’re going to give him a proper burial, right?” Shane swallowed back tears and the growing lump in his throat. “A big ceremony and all the pomp. I’ll pay for it if I have to.”

  “Get some rest. We’ll work out the details tomorrow. You need to heal, and you can’t do that if you don’t rest.”

  Shane nodded like he agreed, but he didn’t think he’d ever feel rested again. Not when everything he wanted was gone. Fuck, he hurt. Everything hurt. Just breathing hurt. He let Paris drop him off at home. His bedroom was still a mess of blood and broken glass. Shane lay down on the bed, curled around Aki’s abandoned clothes, and cried.

  CANDY SLEPT like the dead. Only Manny coming to wake him up and announce that Paris was arriving soon to see him got him out of bed. His very soul ached. He looked at Aki’s many shoes in his closet and felt like his heart was going to burst. He stepped out of the shower to a knock on the bedroom door. Was Paris early?

  He threw on a robe and stalked to the door, ready to give the man attitude. Didn’t Paris know he was mourning? On the other side of the door stood a very scruffy McNaughton.

  Candy deflated. “DM.”

  “I’m supposed to meet Paris here. Said he’s taking you and me to the ISS. Figured I’d come up and see if you’re ready.” The look on his face, redness around his eyes, and tightness of his mouth said McNaughton thought doing anything was better than the endless contemplation of what he’d lost.

  Candy waved him in. “Sit. I’m just getting dressed. You should know Paris is never early.” He made his way to the closet and threw on some clothes, just jeans and a sweater. Should he wear black? Paris wouldn’t be doing the funeral already, would he? Not without telling everyone. Plus Aki didn’t want black at his funeral. He wanted everyone in bright colors and heels. Candy smiled at the thought of the big Irishman in heels. “Would you wear heels for Aki?”

  “I’d walk through lava for the kid,” the man grumbled.

  “He said he loved you.”

  “I didn’t have a chance to tell him…. Doesn’t make it any easier.”

  No, it didn’t. “Have you eaten? You should eat.” McNaughton didn’t look like he’d slept, probably hadn’t eaten either. Aki wouldn’t have wanted that. “Aki would want you to take care of yourself.”

  “Been cleaning. Replaced the broken window with something stronger. Had to repaint.” Shane shook his head. “Been staying in one of the spare rooms. Might just move there permanently.”

  “Seems odd. You making that nice place and all.” Candy added a pale blue scarf just because it reminded him of Aki’s eyes.

  “I made it for Aki and I to share.”

  Candy sighed and glared at the large bed. He knew how that felt.

  “Paris is downstairs,” Manny said from the open doorway, then disappeared again.

  “We better get going, then.” Candy tried to keep his voice light. He didn’t know McNaughton that well, but could sense the man was hardly holding it together. They made their way downstairs and out to the car where Paris waited. Candy was somewhat irritated to see he looked no worse for wear. There were no red eyes or puffiness; his clothes were neat and not thrown together. Was it all part of the act? What Paris had to show to the world to be the powerful senator he was? If so, Candy wanted no part of it.

  “I thought we’d all go see Aki together today,” Paris said, looking out the window instead of at them. Viewing his corpse together wouldn’t make it any easier on any of them. It had been three days since Aki’s death. The government had effectively shut down any video or pictures that came up of winged men or a large dog running around City M. Their control was scary.

  McNaughton said nothing, just glared out his window at the world passing by. Candy missed Aki’s light humor in that moment. He would have known what to say to break the tension. Candy would have given anything for a snide joke about his underwear taking over the world or the new heels Just Shoes had on display. Aki’s absence had really become a void none of them knew how to fill.

  The ISS was as unassuming as always. It could have passed for an office building from the outside. Candy had been in it enough now that it gave him the creeps with its long hallways, labs, and hospital-like rooms. Everyone had pale pupils here or that weird tingling vibe that told him they were A-Ms. He hoped that whatever Paris planned went fast. He was pretty sure he wouldn’t be able to hold it together long enough not to become a blubbering idiot in front of the entire world after seeing his best friend’s body.

  “Down this hall,” Paris was saying as he led them through several unfamiliar hallways. “Don’t mention anything from the last few days.”

  “Yeah, yeah, it’s a big secret,” McNaughton grumbled.

  Paris opened the door and stepped inside. Candy followed close behind him, but stopped a second later when he saw Aki sitting up in a hospital bed watching something on a com tablet.

  “What the fuck?”

  Aki glanced up and smiled. “You must be Candy. Paris said I’d know you by the hair.”

  Must be?

  McNaughton pushed Candy aside and barreled to the bed. “Aki?”

  Aki examined the detective’s face, several expressions crossing his face, before he glanced toward Paris. “Shane?”

  Paris nodded.

  Aki gave the man a heart-stopping smile.

  “From this day forward, he will be doing video diaries to himself,” Paris told them. “There’s no way to tell what memories he’ll lose or regain each time tumors form. For now he’s only got pieces: names, mostly, faces, not so much. You can touch him. We’ve gotten that under control.”

  McNaughton grabbed Aki’s face and kissed him hard enough that Candy had to look away. Wow, did he need a guy who’d kiss him like that or what? “But he was dead,” Candy whispered quietly to Paris, not sure what Aki knew or should know.

  “AP projects are hard to terminate. Mostly they shut down to nearly undetectable life levels to heal when the damage is too great. It’s very similar to cryogenic sleep. Without advanced machines for scanning, you’d be unable to detect a heartbeat or brain activity. A-Ms do the same thing, only at a faster pace.” Paris picked up Aki’s abandoned com tablet and set it on the table.

  “What about the other one?” Candy asked. The doctor, Hyeon, as Aki had called him. The thought of the man still being alive gave him chills. What if he was still out there? “The one with the black wings.”

  “A clone of an AP. He’s been contained until we can terminate completely. I guess you’d say he’s on ice. His obsession for Aki makes sense as well as the murders since he was a clone. Aki remembers none of it. Probably better that way.”

  Candy nodded. He could have lived just fine without the memories too. Some memories were just better left in the past. He moved toward the bed to hug his best friend and never let go.

  THIRTY

  SHANE LEFT Aki and Candy in his bed watching a movie. Manny sat in his living room playing a video game. The man was alert and just there as a precaution, but his presence made Shane more comfortable since he had an errand to run. The security system was on heavy alarms today because Shane would be leaving Aki and Candy alone most of the day. Paris waited in a car outside.

  When Shane got in, he couldn’t help but glance back a few times. Paris had guards outside of the building too. All for Shane’s benefit. He couldn’t help but be nervous. Hyeon, the cloned AP project, was contained. Shane had seen it himself. The blue cryo tank seemed to keep the monster asleep. For now.

  Paris had promised that Hyeon would not be released. He had murdered thirteen children. If anything, the man had a death sentence waiting for him at the hands of the ISS. The only problem was they had to figure out how to kill him and keep him dead. Aki might know how to destroy the AP completely, but no one wanted to stir those memories up in him. Shane remembered Bart telling him that Aki was happiest with a simple life. He was sure as hell going to try to give that to him.

  It had been a week since Aki
left the hospital. His memory was fragmented, choppy. Awake, Aki remembered almost nothing of the camp. If the kid never remembered those days, it was just fine with Shane. Asleep, Aki often had nightmares that took Shane hours to soothe. Bart had sold Aki’s contract to Paris for a discount, citing medical issues that would make it impossible for Aki to complete the terms of his service. Paris had agreed to sell it to Shane once he was assured that Aki fared well under his care. Shane intended to care for Aki like the precious shining jewel he was.

  “An extraction team is meeting us there,” Paris told Shane as they drove to an airstrip where a helicopter would take them to the site of the AP facility.

  “What are you expecting to find?”

  Paris shrugged. “I’ve heard a lot of it has been vandalized. Records lost. It’s been on lockdown for years, but no one has gone in to actually find what might be missing.”

  “Like two AP projects.” The thought that really stopped Shane cold and went unsaid was that there were likely many of these projects that had gotten free. If more of them were clones like Hyeon had been, they were in for serious trouble.

  “The South had Aki and Hyeon for years, examining them. Aki only remembers two years, but we both know how messed up his memories are. It could have been decades for all we know. The North government is worried that they will use the technology. There’s no way to know how much, if any, of it left that camp.” Paris sighed. “This wasn’t what I had in mind when I became a senator.”

  Shane nodded. Every job came with the bad. He’d been a cop for years, finding people alive, watching happy reunions, and, sadly enough, often telling loved ones that their lost family member had passed. He took the good with the bad, and clung to the good he could find.

  “Let’s get this over with. Just Shoes is supposed to have a new shipment today, and I want to take Aki there this evening to shop.”

  Paris laughed. “Better you than me, Detective.”

  THE FACILITY looked like a prison—barred, electrified wire surrounding it, huge walls, tiny windows, and long corridors. The ISS had already arrived and were hauling out computer equipment. Dr. Vitoric met Shane and Paris just inside the main entry.

  “How bad is it?” Paris asked her.

  “A half-dozen projects unaccounted for. Another thirty still asleep.”

  Thirty? Shane groaned. “Do you guys even have the resources to contain that many?”

  The doctor nodded. “We’ve restructured a section of the ISS building in City M for their containment. It’s where the other one is.” She led them down a hallway and into a large dome-like room filled with eerie blue pods. “The process of moving them will be slow, but we’re being careful not to wake any of them.”

  “How many are clones?” Paris asked.

  “Unknown, as most of the records were damaged. We have experts who will be trying to recover as much as they can. We will likely have to test each one for the cell duplication that happens in clones.”

  “And opening them up to get samples may wake them,” Shane prompted.

  She nodded. “Unfortunately, yes. We are unsure of how deep they are in cryogenic slumber. One of them woke when we tried to move the pod. We had to sedate her and move her to a new pod. Most of these are just in bad disrepair.” She paused and frowned.

  “But?” Shane asked.

  “Clones feel different. Their brain wave patterns are always a jumble. I get that from a handful of these.”

  Paris looked at her. “You hear them? Their thoughts right now when they are in a coma?”

  She nodded and pointed out three different pods. “Those are off. The rest just dream.”

  “Quarantine any that you feel might be clones. We’ll send new pods down for them. The rest, let’s get back to City M. Maybe we can wake a few up and see if they want normal lives,” Paris said as he headed for the door. Shane could see the unease in Paris by the way he kept touching his cuffs and adjusting his collar.

  “None of them will ever be normal, sir,” the doctor pointed out.

  “Normal is a relative term, don’t you think, doc?” Shane asked, looking pointedly into her green eyes with their nearly white pupil. “I’ve got a psi at home who loves shoes and Artie’s coffee. If I piss him off, he might have wings and talons, but he’s still that kid who loves shoes and coffee.”

  “So you’re saying we should lull them all into complacency with shopping and caffeine?”

  Shane shrugged. “Gotta start somewhere. Since they’ve been sleeping a long time, coffee is as good a place as any.”

  AKI CURLED around Candy on the bed and ate another spoon of ice cream. They watched something with ancient kingdoms and swords, and Candy remarked their politics were more fucked-up than the ones they lived with.

  “So DM been giving you some regularly?” Candy asked.

  “Mhmm.”

  “No problem with the seeing stuff thing? Like bad stuff from his head?”

  “Nope.” Aki glanced at the window and the new break-resistant barrier placed on the glass. He hated that window. But Shane would know something was up if he wanted to cover it or mentioned how it bothered him. Maybe he should move the furniture around in the room.

  “You missed the bonfire. Hell, I missed the bonfire. I’m so behind. Haven’t worked more than a day or two in weeks.”

  Aki ran a soothing hand through his friend’s hair. “You can have some of my money. Bart says I have a lot stashed away.” A ridiculous amount since now he didn’t have to buy out his contract. He rolled away and got up from the bed. “Gotta pee, be right back.” He vanished into the bathroom, did his business, then washed his hands. He glared in the mirror, seeing so much more than he wanted to.

  Hyeon’s memories, though scattered, now occupied his brain, as well as everything from his own past. Memories unblocked from years of tests and torture. All that pain. He remembered every second. His eyes flashed the biohazard symbol for a second before he could get his emotions under control.

  That was all in the past. Didn’t he and Paris decide in the hospital that he was finally letting it all go? The tumors might come back. He might forget again. He made videos to himself every day of the important things he wanted to remember. Like the fact that Shane brought him flowers that morning and always had Artie’s coffee ready for him when he woke. Or that Candy told him of all the exciting things he wanted to do with the red-light district in the next ten years. He wanted to remember LuAnn’s smile when he came in for sugar buns yesterday for the first time in weeks.

  None of the rest mattered. The past was gone. Hyeon would not be returning for him. Aki watched the symbol in his eyes fade to their normal pale blue. No one needed to know he could kill with his power. No one needed to know he could strip others of every memory. It was hard enough for him to know those things. Maybe someday he would really forget it all again. He could only hope.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  LISSA KASEY lives in St. Paul, MN, has a bachelor’s degree in creative writing, and collects Asian ball joint dolls that look like her characters. She has three cats who enjoy waking her up an hour before her alarm every morning and sitting on her lap to help her write. She can often be found at anime conventions masquerading as random characters when she’s not writing about boy romance.

  Where you can visit Lissa:

  Website: http://lissakasey.com

  Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/parisbvamp

  Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4904483.Lissa_Kasey

  Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1186894710

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  Table of Contents

  Title page

  COPYRIGHT

  PROLOGUE

  ONE

  TWO

  THREE

  FOUR

  FIVE

  SIX

&
nbsp; SEVEN

  EIGHT

  NINE

  TEN

  ELEVEN

  TWELVE

  THIRTEEN

  FOURTEEN

  FIFTEEN

  SIXTEEN

  SEVENTEEN

  EIGHTEEN

  NINETEEN

  TWENTY

  TWENTY-ONE

  TWENTY-TWO

  TWENTY-THREE

  TWENTY-FOUR

  TWENTY-FIVE

  TWENTY-SIX

  TWENTY-SEVEN

  TWENTY-EIGHT

  TWENTY-NINE

  THIRTY

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR