"She'll be charged with attempted murder. I've ordered her to be picked up. You'll have to write up the report as soon as you can."
She nodded. "Do you want a written report on my meeting with the general as well?"
"Yes. But you can give me the basics now, if you like." One thing was for certain — he wasn't sending her to watch over Jeanette Harris. She'd been through enough for one night.
She crossed her arms. To anyone else she might have looked calm. Casual, even. But her anger washed through his soul and burned him with guilt.
"Nine of the seventeen children placed into Greenwood's care have Emma listed as their birth mother. She, and more than likely her sister, was a hybrid shifter-changer."
"I'd already guessed we were dealing with a hybrid."
"Did you also know that the purpose of Generation Eighteen was to design psychically-endowed hybrids for the military to use as weapons?"
So Hopeworth was playing in the genetic minefield. Maybe the kites were one of their creations. "Anything else?"
She was silent for several heartbeats, staring out the window. "I think there'll be trouble with the general in the future."
Her voice was almost subdued. He frowned. "What do you mean?"
"Why did the general agree to meet with us?"
"You requested information."
"Information you found out without the general's help. He told me nothing, really. But he thought I was one of the rejects trying to get information on where I came from."
His confusion deepened. "Why would he think that? You're too old, for a start."
"He said it was my hair color. Apparently, it's something of a signature in their projects."
That would certainly explain the birth certificate with eight names on it. But the general seemed to know the exact location of all his rejects. Why wouldn't he know if she was one of them?
"If you're one their rejects, you have nothing to worry about." Hopeworth had showed no interest in the Generation Eighteen rejects.
"But what if I'm not a reject? What if I'm something else entirely?"
"From what I can see, you're either a reject or in Hopeworth. What else is there?"
"I don't know." Her voice was so soft he barely caught it. "But I've a feeling I'm going to find out."
She rubbed her arms. He clenched his fists and fought the urge to walk across and comfort her.
"I've got to go," he said abruptly. "I want you to do a search through our records. See if there have been any official requests for information on our Generation Eighteen rejects."
She looked around at him, one pale eyebrow raised. "You think the killer might be a cop or agent?"
"There's a good chance. The only way she could have found these seventeen people so quickly is through official access. No alarms were raised, so the records weren't hacked into."
"And if I find anything?"
"Contact me or Stephan. Under no circumstances are you to go after her yourself."
"Edging me out again, huh?" She shook her head slightly. "I never took you for a coward, Gabriel. I guess I was wrong."
Anger rose, swift and hard, and her eyes widened. Maybe she wasn't as unaware of the link as he'd thought.
"Better me being a coward than you being dead." He hesitated and ran a hand through his hair. "Damn it, just do what you're told. I can't deal with this now."
"And you won't deal with it later," she murmured.