Кей Хупер - Blood Ties

Dean said, “And that’s not all he’s connected to.”

Tony checked his email, opened the file from Bishop, and began to read. Only a couple of paragraphs in, he was swearing as well, and not under his breath. “Jesus. I don’t believe it. How did we not know—”

“Because Galen didn’t know,” Dean interrupted. “The connection went back too far. Finish reading. And then you guys put your corns in. We’re moving outside in just a few minutes.”

The key was under the flowerpot, as promised. Gabriel unlocked the door and slipped into the old farmhouse, moving with utter silence.

Not as much fun for me , Roxanne noted. A key, for crying out loud .

With hardly a breath of sound, Gabriel said, “Keep watch, Rox. Just because he’s not supposed to be any trouble doesn’t mean he won’t be.”

Okay, okay. Lemme see …. He’s in the basement. Door’s in the kitchen, Gabe .

Gabriel made his way to the kitchen, still moving without a sound, gun drawn and ready. He found the basement door easily enough, his brows lifting as he noted the bolt locking it from this side.

Keeping something in rather than out, don’t you think? Because there’s no other exit from the basement. Bishop was right. They must believe the leash has been slipping. Be careful, Gabe .

He unlocked the bolt carefully, then just as carefully eased the door open. As soon as he did, he heard a sound coming from the basement.

Humming.

And a cheery tune, no less. Jesus .

Without responding out loud, Gabriel moved slowly and cautiously down the well-lit stairs and into a very bright basement. There was lots of white tile and stainless steel, and large lights illuminated the space more brightly than daylight.

There were two stainless-steel tables. On one lay a clear-plastic-wrapped body that barely appeared to be human.

The other table was covered with thickly coagulated blood, which was in the process of being washed off and down the big drain in the floor. The man wielding the hose looked very much like the man who had left the house only minutes before, except that he was perhaps a few years younger and there was nothing military in his bearing.

At all.

And there was a definite light of madness in his eyes when he turned his head, saw Gabriel, and smiled.

“Hello. BJ said I could clean up this time. He was too tired last night. Did Bubba send you?”

“Yeah,” Gabriel said, holding his voice even with an effort. “Bubba sent me. We need to go to town, Rex.”

Ruby crept into Bailey’s bedroom early, to double-check, and was satisfied to find one of her guardians still sleeping. Just to make sure, she put her hand on Bailey’s shoulder and concentrated for several long moments before stepping away from the bed.

Without much effort at all, she made the bed shimmer and then seemingly transform. Where before there had been tumbled covers and a dark-haired woman sleeping, now there was only a neatly made bed. Good. Bailey would be safe here. Until it was all over.

She went downstairs, finding Galen pouring coffee in the kitchen.

“You’re up early,” he commented.

“I didn’t sleep very well,” Ruby confessed. She got cereal for herself from the pantry, then milk from the fridge and a bowl and spoon. “Are you going to rest when Bailey gets up?”

“Probably.” he said, joining her at the kitchen table.

She fixed her cereal, took several bites, then said, “You haven’t tried to listen to the voices, have you?”

“As a matter of fact, I did,” he told her. “Still nothing I can understand. Voices, but not really words.”

“I expect they don’t want you to hear them now.”

He frowned. “Ruby, do you know where the voices are coming from?”

“They were let in when Father died,” she told him, her voice matter-of-fact. “Before that, they just listened.”

“Listened? To who?”

“To you. To your friends. The team. Father needed a spy. He was pleased when he found them. Because even though they knew about you, you didn’t know about them.”

Galen began to feel very, very cold. “Ruby, what’re you talking about?”

“Your brothers.”

“I don’t have any brothers.”

She looked at him with those too-old eyes. “No, you never knew about them. Your mother never told you the good man who raised you wasn’t your father. She made sure nobody knew about him. Changed her name, moved far away from here. Because your biological father was… really mean. He hurt your mother, and your brothers. He would have hurt you if he’d known about you. But your mother kept you secret. Until she was able to run away. She couldn’t take your brothers. They were already… wrong. Twisted. Because of him. She knew. She wanted to save you. So she ran away.”

“Ruby—”

“I would have told you sooner, but… I didn’t know until just after I got here. And even then, it was sort of fuzzy. There were so many chess pieces on the board, you know?”

The coldness Galen felt went all the way to his marrow. He stared at her sweet, innocent face with its too-old eyes and knew without a shadow of a doubt that she was telling him the truth. He had brothers. And, more important to him, they had been inside his head, maybe for a long time, spying on him. And on the unit.

“It wasn’t your fault,” Ruby told him. “Bishop knows that. The rest will too. Father was awfully powerful. He could do things most people can’t even imagine. And he planned ahead.”

His training kicked in automatically, and he said, “If they’re in me, then they know about you. I have to get you out of here.”

Sadly, Ruby said, “I’m sorry. Please don’t blame yourself, okay? That’s not the way it’s supposed to end.”

“The little freak’s right.”

Galen tried, but he was barely able to rise from his chair, barely caught a glimpse of the tall man standing in the doorway, before he heard the muffled sneezes of a silenced automatic and felt bullets slamming into his chest.

HOLLIS CRADLED HER coffee mug between her hands and looked rather blearily at Miranda. “I know I slept. The clock says so. But I feel like I just had a lost weekend or something.”

“According to Reese, it took hours and you expended a great deal of energy in healing Diana. That’s the way it works when you heal. In a way, you give up part of yourself. Bonnie tells me it’s quite an amazing feeling.”

Considering, Hollis said, “Right now it’s mostly a tired feeling. So you guys already knew about Samuel.”

“We worked it out.”

“And you’ve identified the sniper?”

“Yeah, the pieces finally came together, thanks in large part to the information Elliot Brisco provided.”

“Glad the son of a bitch did something right. Poor Diana.”

“Yeah, despite how well she’s handling it now, it’s not going to be easy for her.”

“Will LeMott destroy him? Brisco?”

“Probably. He’s … merciless. And we could never have proven anything against Brisco in a courtroom.”

“So we let LeMott have his revenge?”

“Let’s call it justice,” Miranda suggested.

Hollis nodded. “It’s fine with me. Jesus. Anyway, what about the sniper?”

“Knowing who he is is one thing. What we have to do now is draw him out.”

“And how’re you—we—going to do that?”

“Bait.” There was a crackle in her ear, and Miranda heard her name. She reached up to activate the tiny com. “Go.”

“Got him,” Gabriel said.

“He give you any trouble?”

“Nah, came along like a lamb. Smiling yet. But wait’ll you get a look at what’s in his basement.”