"Your friend must be very important for such measures to be taken."
"He is." He was the only brother he had left.
She frowned, tilting her head slightly to one side, her expression thoughtful. "How can I help, then?"
"I think I'm too close. I've known these people all my life. I don't know if I can be clinical enough to choose the killer amongst them."
"And you want me to be your fresh set of eyes?"
He nodded. "You're a police officer, as well as an outsider. You might see what I don't."
"That's a hell of a gamble on my integrity. How do you know I won't pick someone randomly and be done with it?"
Good question. And the truth was, there was no good answer to it. Nothing except instinct and something deep inside that said he had to trust her. "How do you know I won't shoot Kazdan on sight and save the State the costs of a trial?"
She blinked in surprise. "Jack's done nothing illegal."
Yeah, right. Maybe she didn't consider trying to kill her illegal, but he sure as hell did. And that was only the tip of it. "Kazdan's a commander in an underground organization run by a man known only as Sethanon."
She paled a little. "What sort of organization?"
"An organization that believes humans have no right to be running the world when they are not the superior race."
"Jack said a war was about to begin," She hesitated, licking her lips slightly. "A war in which man will play no part, and yet ultimately be the loser."
If Sethanon won, that would certainly be the truth. "When did Kazdan say this?"
"The night he ... his clone tried to kill me."
So they were gearing up for war. Maybe the kites were nothing more than a warning shot. "So he did try to recruit you that night."
She shrugged. "I'm not so sure. It seemed more of a test of some kind. I just didn't get the feeling he seriously tried to enlist me."
He reached for a plate, and heaped on some meat. Maybe it was a test — to see if the clone could pass the muster of someone who knew the original intimately. But if that were the case, why not just test the clone with Suzy? Maybe it was something to do with Sam's extra chromosome and the psychic abilities they'd yet to pin down.
That in itself suggested Kazdan knew more about Sam than maybe she did herself.
"If Jack was right about the war, then who is the other side?" She hesitated, her gaze thoughtful as she stared at him. "It's you. You're with them, aren't you?"
He nodded. He hadn't wanted to go this deep, but now that she'd made the connection, it couldn't be avoided. He just had to hope his instincts about her were right.
"I'm with an organization known as the Federation. It's a conglomerate of races that oppose Sethanon's ideologies."
She abandoned what remained of her meal and leaned back in the chair. "I've been with State for over ten years, and I've never heard of either Sethanon or the Federation. Why?"
"The Federation originally formed after the Race Wars. It was basically meant to be a union for 'other' races, to ensure we got fair treatment in the wash up after the war."
"Then why haven't I heard of it?
"Because there is no real need for us to be active these days. By and large, other races have a fair deal. We have no wish to rock the boat."
"But this Sethanon does?"
"Definitely. He surfaced about sixteen years ago. Since then, he's tried several strikes against us. Nothing major, just tests of strength, I think. Our biggest problem is that we know as little about him today as we did back then."
Her gaze had narrowed. "You keep saying we. I take it then, that you're not human."
He grimaced. He definitely hadn't meant her to pick up this much. "No. I'm a shapechanger."