"All right then. Who attacked me in my apartment, and why bomb it afterwards?"
His eyes were green slits that conveyed both malevolence and amusement. A chilling combination.
"My men attacked you. We bombed it to destroy your computer and the files you downloaded." He hesitated then shrugged. "I forgot about the second damn com-unit."
"So that's why we were attacked at the hotel?"
He nodded. "I was hoping you'd panic and leave it behind. I should have known better."
"What is in those files that you don't want me to see?"
He smiled coldly. "That's something you'll never know, since I now have your bag and the com-unit."
But she still had his wristcom and the backup files. Or did she? Had they found them at Karl's? She forced a sweet smile. "But you don't have your disks, do you?"
The vein tripped into triple time. "A point I was going to raise. Where are they, Samantha?"
He hadn't found them, then. Good. "Where do you think?"
He cursed. "I thought you'd have more sense than to give them to the spook."
"He was trying to help me, you know."
Jack laughed harshly. "Stern is no more trying to help you than I am. He wants you for his own ends, and you're a fool if you believe otherwise."
Maybe. But right now, she knew which of the two men she trusted more. "What about the kite, then?"
He smiled. "Reflex test. No human can outrun those things, yet you did."
"Maybe I'm just very fast when I'm scared."
He raised an eyebrow and said nothing. She shifted, suddenly uncomfortable under his knowing gaze. She didn't want to be anything else ... didn't want to be related to the very things she'd loathed for as long as she could remember.
"How do you know about me, about my past?"
"Sethanon told me."
Sethanon. The great evil. The great unknown. "And why the hell would he know or even care about me?"
"Because he fears what you might become."
She snorted. "Yeah, right. A would be dictator with hordes of dark monsters at his command fears one lone cop who's a few cogs short in the memory department. Nice try, Jack."
His cold smile widened. "I was appointed your watchdog five years ago by Sethanon. Before me, there was Rachel, your blonde neighbor for several years. Before that, I believe there was a boy named Raul. Brown hair, buck teeth. You went through training together."
She stared at him. She'd never told him any of that. Had she lived in a fish bowl all her life, unaware, yet never alone? It was a frightening thought. She swallowed heavily.
"Then who's trying to set me up for your murder? And why the clone?"
"Sethanon, again. It would seem some of your searches were getting a little too close to the truth for his liking. He wants you off the force and away from their computers. Having you 'kill' me was a method of ensuring that."
All that would ensure was that she'd end up in prison. Though she guessed that would keep her well away from the State's computer system. "Why try and take the clone back then? It was your men in the morgue, wasn't it?"
"Yes. Reliable help is not readily available these days, I'm afraid." He gave her a thin smile. "The clone was pumped with accelerant. Even on death, the accelerant keeps working. In a day or so it would have been very obvious it was not me."
"And what about the other clones?"
He raised his eyebrows. "What other clones?"