Karl's smile widened. "Could be. Your choice."
He quit fighting the inevitable and bore the rest of Karl's ministrations in silence. And at least the salve Karl applied liberally over his face and ribs eased the pain somewhat.
"I want you to have a quick look at the body in the trunk," he said, once Karl had finished. "His face seems familiar."
Karl nodded and wrapped a hand around Gabriel's arm, helping him up. The pain killers had kicked in, and the aches were little more than a distant promise of pain yet to come. But given the strength of that muted ache, he'd be lucky if he could move tomorrow. The bastards really had stuck the boots in once they'd knocked him out.
"You're lucky shapechangers have strong bones," Karl said, expression grim. "Any other man would be in the hospital right now."
"Forgive me if I don't feel particularly lucky," he muttered, and rolled the corpse over. "You recognize him?"
Karl frowned slightly. "Hard to say for certain, with the face so bloated, but it looks a lot like Dan Wetherton."
The Minister for Social Services. No wonder the face had seemed so familiar. He'd been in the news a lot lately, raising hell about the amount of money the Government had allocated to Science and Technology in the latest budget offering.
"Looks like someone wanted him out of the way."
"But this man's been dead for two or three days. Wetherton was on the news last night."
He frowned at the corpse. He didn't doubt that Karl had the right man, but if Wetherton was on the news, who was this? Another clone? The second in as many days? That was more than just a coincidence.
Something big was obviously going down.
He studied the body a moment longer, and then asked, "Wetherton's in town tomorrow, isn't he?"
Karl nodded. "Premier's meeting."
"Take this one back and run genetic tests. I'll see if I can arrange for a cell sample to be snatched from Wetherton."
Karl raised an eyebrow. "No one's ever been able to clone a human to the point where mannerisms and behavior are an exact match. They might be genetically identical but there are always differences."
He smiled grimly. "But if someone has succeeded, we need to find out who and why. Especially if those people are connected to Sethanon."
"True." Karl hesitated, and then added. "I'd like to get hold of a cell sample from Sam Ryan, too."
No one would be getting anything from her if he couldn't damn well find her again. "Why?"
"Haven't you noticed her eyes?"
He frowned. "They're blue." And quite pretty, even when they were glaring at him.
"Bright blue, ringed by a fine band of shifting, smoky gray." Karl hesitated, his expression curious.
"So?"
"So, eyes that color were one of the few tangible signs of a Shadow Walker."
He snorted softly. "Shadow Walkers never existed. It was simply another name humans gave to vampires."
"Oh, they existed all right. But their numbers were few, and they were thought to have been killed in the Race Wars."
"Which was fifty years ago." The Race Wars had pitted humans against many nonhuman races. It was a war that cost billions of lives, and yet, in the end, provided no clear winner. Humans still ran most Governments, but nonhumans had at least won recognition — the right to vote, to take a hand in the decision making process. Most were happy with that. Some, like Sethanon, were not.
"Sam's twenty nine. She can't have Walker blood in her."
"Why not? Her parents would certainly be close to the right age to have at least some Walker blood in them."
"There's no record of her parents. She was abandoned as a teenager."