"Paying for life? Or maybe a form of afterlife?"
"Maybe." He paged down, stopping when he came to more well-known names. "Rob Garbott, the State Minister for Police and Emergencies. And David Flint, our newly elected Prime Minister."
She frowned. "Isn't Flint against cloning?"
He nodded. "Look, though. No donation amount. His name is highlighted instead."
"And Garbott's been ticked. Wonder what that means?"
"Maybe you could ask your partner when you see him tomorrow night." Though the comment was made in the blandest of voices, she had a feeling he was being sarcastic.
"Maybe I will." She leaned forward again. "General Lee Hagan. He's also highlighted."
"Hagan's a very influential figure in the army. He's also a key figure in the military's investigations into cloning and gene manipulation."
She began to get a very bad feeling about this list. "You don't suppose they're being set up for some type of hit?"
"It's possible. Maybe if they can't subvert them willingly, they just intend to kill them and replace them." His gaze met hers, his expression grim. "If that's the case, this is Sethanon's doing, not Kazdan's."
She had to agree. Jack was never one to sit around and plan, especially to this degree. He was more your react now and think later type of guy. "If they intend replacing these men with clones, it would have to mean they've found a way to imitate the original's behavior patterns."
"And Wetherton might just be their first success story." His expression was bleak when he glanced at her. "Let's see what's on the other disks. Computer, display data from disk two."
"Displaying," intoned the sultry voice.
Another list came onto the screen. "More names and donations," she muttered. "Surely they can't all be paying money to be cloned."
"They're not." Gabriel pointed to the right of the screen. "Wetherton had the number P1-c after his name. These are P4-v."
"C for clone, v for vampire?"
"It may be as simple as that."
"Why would anyone pay money to become a vampire?"
"Why not? Man spends billions of dollars every year trying to cheat death — something a vampire has already achieved. Given the choice, what would you choose?"
"Better death than life as a bloodsucker."
"Not all vampires are evil. Not all vampires take sustenance from humans to survive."
The edge in his voice suggested this was more than just an opinion. "And you? Given the choice, what would you do?"
He shrugged. "That would depend very much on what, or even who, I had to live for."
She frowned. "So if you loved someone enough, you'd take the change? Isn't that a little sick?"
"As I said, depends on your reasoning."
"You've done it, haven't you?" she said, unable to stop the hint of revulsion creeping into her voice. "You've performed the ceremony that will enable you to make the change when you die."
His eyes showed a faint hint of surprise. "I haven't, but a close friend has. Not for love, but for reasons I can well understand."
"Stephan. You're talking about Stephan." Why she was so certain, she couldn't say. But in the two days she'd known Gabriel, she'd seen him interact with many people, both work colleagues and friends. With Stephan, there had something more than friendship. With him, there was a bond that went much, much deeper.
"I can see why you're a good cop." A brief smile tugged the corners of his lips. "And yes, it was Stephan I was talking about."
"What about Lyssa?"