With all my love,
Mom
Chapter 2
He knows . . . About the children. About the boy.
Having forced himself to wait till nine, Dev coded in a call to Talin with impatient hands, his shoulders tight with strain. The blonde woman had fallen straight back into unconsciousness after uttering those words, but Dev hadn't needed anything more - his gut told him there could be only one answer.
"Dev?" Talin's sleep-rumpled face appeared on the transparent screen of his computer, her yawn unsurprising given it was just hitting six in her part of the country. "I thought our meeting was at ten thirty Eastern."
"Change of plans." He considered his next words with care. Talin was pragmatic, but she was also very attached to her charges. "I need to ask Jon something."
She made a face. "He's not going to change his mind about entering a Shine school. But I make sure he reads everything Glen sends him, and the Psy in the pack are helping him train his abilities."
"He's settled in DarkRiver." Dev had come to that conclusion after a personal visit to the leopard pack's home base in San Francisco. "I think that's the best place for him."
"Then . . . ?"
"How many people knew about Jon in the Psy labs - after he was kidnapped?" The boy was - genetically speaking - over forty-five percent Psy and had been born with a unique kind of vocal ability. Jonquil Duchslaya could literally talk people into doing whatever he wanted. It was a gift many would shed blood to control.
Tiny lines fanned out from the corners of Talin's eyes as her gaze sharpened. "Ashaya, of course. She was the head scientist."
Ashaya Aleine was also now mated to a DarkRiver leopard, and would do nothing to put either Jon or other Forgotten kids in danger. "Who else?"
"No one alive." Talin's voice vibrated with the echo of purest rage. "Clay took care of Larsen, the bastard who was experimenting on the children. And you know the Council destroyed Ashaya's lab after she defected, killing all her research assistants."
Ice speared through his chest, cold, rigid, deadly. "How certain are you of that?"
"DarkRiver has contacts in the Net. So do the wolves," she added, referring to DarkRiver's closest ally, the Snow-Dancers. "There wasn't even a hint of a survivor."
But the Psy, Dev knew, were adept at keeping secrets. Especially Psy like Ming LeBon, the Councilor rumored to have been behind the destruction of the lab. "If I send you a photo, can you see if Jon recognizes the person in it from his kidnapping?"
"No." An absolute answer, her expression as fierce as that of the leopards in her pack. "He's finally starting to act like a normal kid - I don't want to remind him of what he went through in that place."
Dev had known Talin long enough to understand that she wouldn't budge. "Then I need Ashaya's number."
"She was pretty broken up about losing her people." A pause. "Just be careful with her."
Dev heard what she wasn't saying. "You afraid I'll beat the answer out of her?"
"You've changed, Dev." A quiet response. "Become harder."
It was an accusation he'd faced many times in the past few months.
You heartless bastard! You put him in the hospital! How can you live with yourself?
Shelving the knife-edged memory, he shrugged. "Part of the job." That was true as far as it went, but even if he stopped being the director of Shine tomorrow, his ability would ensure the spreading cold in his soul. Paradoxically, that very ice made him the best person to run Shine - he knew how the Psy thought.
"Here."
He noted the number Talin flashed on the screen. "Can we postpone our meeting?"
A nod. "Let me know what you find out."
Ending the call, Dev coded in Ashaya's number. It was answered on her end by a gray-eyed child with silky straight black hair. "Hello. May I help you?"
Dev hadn't thought anything could make him smile today, but he felt his lips curve at the solemn greeting. "Is your mom around?"