Authors: Charlee Allden
“I could never do that to Rose. Never.”
Sara huffed a laugh. “And here I thought working for Deepwater would have stamped out all those nice ideals of yours.”
Lily didn’t find it funny. “You know damn well, service to country and community was bred into our DNA.” Part of being raised in a family of cops was believing in doing the right thing. At least it had been for Lily.
“And yet you dropped out of the DC Metro Academy to go into civilian service.”
“Yeah, and now they want me to pretend to be a cop. How am I supposed to do this, Sara?” She groaned out a sound that was half laugh and half frustration. “I have no idea what I’m doing here. I don’t have any training for investigating murder.” She acted on intelligence, she didn’t collect it. Didn’t investigate beyond what was necessary to plan an op. “Why does everyone think I can do this?”
“Of course you can do this. Leave the tech to my team and you handle interviewing suspects and following the clues we turn up. Hell, if Sean can do it, it can’t be that hard.” Sara flashed Lily a quick grin. The rivalry between brother and sister had always been a superficial one, more for form than heartfelt.
Lily eased back in her chair. “Sean’s brilliant and you know it.”
“Runs in the family, cuz.”
“Not on my side,” said Lily. “If I had any brilliance I wouldn’t have let Bradley drag me into this mess.”
Sara stood and came around to lean against the front of her desk. She looked Lily right in the eyes. “I’m betting why you’re doing this has a lot more to do with a dead Ormney man and a critically wounded woman than it has to do with Bradley-the-Bastard.”
They shared a long moment of silent understanding. Lily wasn’t the only one in the room who tended to take on a little too much personal responsibility. It felt good to be there with someone she understood. Someone who understood her. She’d been a fool to forfeit her family for her pride.
“Come on.” Her cousin straightened and turned to the door. “Let’s go look at your dead Ormney.” She glanced over her shoulder with a grin. “I’m dying to show off all the research I did on this one.”
Lily laughed.
Sara led her down the hall to a secured door, then entered a code and swung the door open wide. Recessed lights glowed softly against the walls of the cavernous lab. Pinpoint spotlights lit the three stainless steel tables that dominated the center of the room. Square silver doors lined one wall.
The opposite wall ended about shoulder height, giving way to a plexi-divider, that separated the room from a balcony-style seating area. It reminded Lily of the box seating at the downtown sports arena. The third wall was one of the semi-transparent walls and she could see several white clad figures moving around through the misted privacy panel.
Lily tilted her head toward the shadowy techs. “Mary Santini?”
“Yes, but you’ll have to wait for those results.” Sara flipped a switch as she talked. “Leno is a genius, but compulsive. Having strangers in the theater will only throw him off his stride.”
“Genius? High praise.”
“Well deserved. I recruited him in from the Chicago Metro number two spot.” Sara flashed another of her quick smiles. “Said he’d rather be number two to someone who was at least in his league, even if I was an infant.”
She pulled a small cube from the pocket of her lab coat and slid it into the unit mounted at one end of the nearest shiny silver table. A pinpoint light expanded and blended with several new beams of light, emanating from lenses positioned around the table. A blurry image formed, then slowly sharpened, almost solidifying, into a perfect hologram of the dead Ormney. Fascinated, Lily stepped forward. The burn marks directly over his heart were clear and distinct.
“You okay with this?” Sara asked.
Lily nodded. She’d be okay with looking at the results of her actions if it would get her closer to whoever had engineered the attack.
“Your second full blast stopped the heart immediately.”
Again, Lily nodded, then returned her gaze to the hologram. The fist-sized mark high on the man’s chest caught her attention. “What’s this?”
“Many of the first generation immigrants are tattooed in exactly this position,” Sara explained. “The tattoos invariably reflect their role. Elder, Law Keeper, Science Tech…”
“Like the medallions and insignia they wear?”
“Exactly.” Sara shifted her position—a subtle outlet for that endless energy of hers. “You know they can’t take non-organics with them when they
slip
. Apparently, they knew the trip into our dimension would be so arduous they wouldn’t be able to bring clothing with them. They tattooed the insignia on their flesh.”
Lily memorized the inked lines. “What’s this one mean?”
“Not sure. I poured over gigs of data to prep for this autopsy, but I didn’t see one exactly like this. It looks a little like—”
“The Perpetuation symbol,” Lily finished for her.
“Right. But the triangle is off.”
Lily studied the mark. The tips of two scalene triangles pointed together and overlapped a circle. She recognized the larger triangle as the probability pattern Kiq had used to teach her the most likely locations for any
slip
.
Her cousin stepped closer. “Does it mean something to you?”
“Maybe.”
Sara waited.
Lily pointed. “This triangle is tied to their
slip
pattern, but I don’t know if it’s tied to any specific role. They all have the ability to
slip
. They all use the patterns.” Lily thought of Jolaj and his explanation of the differences in their abilities. Some used the patterns with a great deal more skill than others.
Sara dipped her head to indicate the hologram. “Well, he’s not telling.”
“Give me a still vid and I’ll ask around.”
Sara nodded, then pointed to the Ormney’s thick neck muscles. She rattled off a quick series of coordinates for the controls and the hologram altered, virtually simulating peeling away the layers of tissue to create a cross section. “This is a void in the tissue,” she said. “It’s deep and the related damage indicates a projectile. We matched it to a dart picked up in the sweep of the female victim’s apartment. The kind fired from a close contact animal tranq gun. One of our forensics teams is working on pinning down possible type matches.”
“And what about the drug?”
“It matched closely, but not exactly, one of the artificial compounds on the list you provided Sean. A little digging tagged the origin, control, and use of the substance on your list as military—bio-weapons related. We’re still searching for data on this exact substance.”
“Send what you have to my data-com and I’ll work on that too.” Lily paced slowly around the image. “Any idea how far away the shooter was?”
“At least ten yards.”
That caught her attention and brought her to a stop. “That wouldn’t be an easy shot with a dart gun.”
Sara grinned. “See. You’re doing pretty good, so far.”
Lily tossed her back a rueful frown. “Sean will have picked up on that. He’ll have Metro looking at vets and looking for similar MOs, tracking possible buyers, checking out practice ranges. Someone practicing with a dart gun would be memorable.”
“He’s got the boots on the ground, to follow up on that stuff,” Sara agreed.
“I’ll concentrate on the drug, the symbol, and this particular Ormney.” Lily had to look away to collect her thoughts. “Can you tell me anything else about him?”
Sara tapped the hands against her thighs as if there were music in her head. “Sure. Age, about sixty. He’s definitely from the Crossing Generation, but that’s still in his prime for them. They have a longer life span than we do. This guy led a tough life in the first half of his years.”
Lily had already noticed the hairline scars on his chest and shoulders. “Any idea what kind of hard?”
“All kinds, I’d say. Signs of early years’ malnutrition and every kind of injury, from projectile wounds to
slip
trauma.”
The list made Lily’s head spin, but her attention focused on the one thing she’d never heard of. “
Slip
trauma?”
“Here’s where Bradley’s OA clearance and my dedication to thorough research paid off.” Sara waggled her eyebrows. “According to Medical Examiner records back in the arrival days, lots of Ormney died when they reached Earth. Nearly a third
slipped
into our universe and ended up colliding with solid objects, falling from crazy heights, or buried alive. The military took some of the corpses, of course. But there were so many bodies taken into custody by the Medical Examiner’s office they had a backlog for a year.”
“Jesus. I had no idea.”
Lily needed time to consider that, but Sara was on a roll. “The Ormney wanted the bodies back, but they didn’t have much pull back then.” Sara grimaced then went on. “When the MEs examined the bodies they found some unusual tissue damage. A sort of degrading of the cellular structure. Most often found near the area where flesh had merged with a solid object, but not always. They speculated that the damaged areas, that were not directly associated with areas where solid objects merged to the flesh, were caused when the subject started to
slip
into
sync
, realized the problem, and managed to hold the
slip
long enough to get that area of tissue clear of the object.”
“And this guy had
slip
trauma?”
“Right. That means he must’ve had some close calls with
syncing
into solid objects.”
“But survived.” Lily had no idea how that might be related to the case, but it was certainly interesting. “Sometimes, I’m blown away by just how little most of us know about them.”
Sara raised her eyebrows and tilted her head. “Given the curious nature of the average human being, seems a little unlikely, doesn’t it?”
Lily agreed, “Damn unlikely.” It could only mean the Ormney had made an effort to discourage that curiosity and it to have been the technology exchange agreement that had given that power.
After reviewing the data on the dead Ormney, Sara insisted on taking Lily out for a little personal time. They both needed dinner and there wouldn’t be any results from Mary’s autopsy for hours yet. Lily needed time to let everything she’d learned soak in, so she agreed without much fight.
Sara took her to a night club one rail stop up the line, assuring her the place was well equipped to feed them. The neighborhood was upscale, trendy, the short walk from the station to the club well lit and well trafficked. The club’s interior was sleekly minimalist. Gently pulsing patterns of colored light softened the plain white surfaces and drew attention to the only decoration, life-like robotic figures that stood on pillars near a dance floor. Light splashed color across the figures as they moved in rhythm, matching the synth-music pumping through the club’s sound system. An enticing designer scent drifted in the air.
Sara led Lily to one of the privacy booths ringing the main room and engaged the screen, leaving them with an obscured view of the dance floor and complete privacy. Inside the small space the music pumped in at a more comfortable level and the soft, plush seating invited relaxed sprawling.
“Worth the extra expense,” said Sara as she settled onto one of the mini sofas.
Lily sat opposite her and waited while her cousin ordered edibles and beverages.
“So,” said Sara, leaning back into the cushions. “How long are you in town before you head back out to some lawless land to distract yourself with offing bad guys?”
The question caught Lily off guard.
“Don’t look so surprised,” said Sara. “We’re family and family’s allowed to ask the awkward questions.”
“It’s been a while since I spent any time with family,” said Lily. “I’m rusty.”
“Entirely your own fault. We’ve been here all along.”
“Yeah. I see that now.” Lily eased back into the cushions. The O’Learys—she should have known, but hadn’t. Her father had been buried less than a year before her mother remarried, moved them to DC, and left behind the O’Leary ways. “When Rose and Bradley got married...”
“The family had to accept it, didn’t mean any of us had to like it.”
“I had to get a little distance and Deepwater provided a good opportunity. My work didn’t give me much time for trips home.”
Sara tapped her fingers against her lips, then waved those fingers in the air between them as if she could wipe away Lily’s answer. “Excuses. But let’s move on. Or, more precisely, back to the question.”
How long was she back for? “I’m not sure.”
Sara frowned. “Or you can’t or won’t tell me because it’s all bound up in Deepwater secrecy?”
“Something like that.”
“So, while you’re here…” Sara let her voice rise and fall with the questioning lilt of a gossipmonger. “What are you planning to do about Bradley?”
“As little as possible,” Lily deadpanned.
Sara slipped off her shoes and pulled her feet up onto the seat. “Oh, he isn’t going to be easy to ignore if you’re working with him.”
“I suppose not.”
Her cousin grinned. “Do you honestly think his reason for getting you involved in this case is anything less than personal?”
“I do have knowledge of the Ormney—”
Sara laughed. “Get real. If anyone has access to the Ormney, it’s Bradley.”
“You have a point.” It didn’t add up for Bradley to get her involved. “What can he possibly want from me?”
“Honey, you have to face facts. What Bradley wants is to get back in your pants.”
The thought dredged up bitter memories and turned Lily inside out with remembered anguish. “You forget there is nothing special about my pants. I’m one of an identical pair. He proved years ago that Rose would serve just as well. Better, in fact.”
“Hardly.” Sara humphed. “You don’t even talk to Rose, do you?”
Lily shook her head.
“I don’t suppose your mother would say anything. But Brian... hasn’t he told you anything about Rose and Bradley’s marriage?”
Lily propped an elbow on the back of the seat and let her head rest on her hand. “Not a favorite topic of conversation.”