"Very, if Hopeworth is in fact responsible for his cloning."
"It doesn't make sense, you know. Why clone someone like Wetherton? From what I've read of the man, he's never been considered Prime Ministerial material."
"But David Flint was. Remember, Sethanon has already tried to replace him with a clone."
Which suggested that if the clones were coming from Hopeworth, then Sethanon was in control of the base. And yet, if that was true, why would Hopeworth be showing interest in her if Sethanon wanted her watched and knew what she was? There was too much conflicting information to believe things were that simple. "So this whole assignment is simply a setup to discover Wetherton's links?"
"Setup? No." Gabriel hesitated slightly. "But use, yes."
Either way, did it really matter? She'd been assigned the case and, no matter what the dangers, it was sure as hell better than spending the rest of her life in this broom closet. "So I'll be careful. Anything else, Assistant Director?"
He hesitated again, then shook his head. "Keep in touch,"
he said softly.
A hint of regret ran through his eyes, and she steeled herself against it. She'd tried hard enough. Now it was his turn. "Why?
I thought it was your life's ambition to get rid of me."
"I never said I wanted you out of my life."
He'd never said he wanted her in it, either. Had never truly thrust out the hand of friendship. Everything she knew about him she'd learned during the course of their work. He'd never attempted to extend the boundaries of their working relationship, despite the fact that there was obviously some sort of basic attraction between them.
Whether that attraction would have led to anything more than a night or two in the sack was anyone's guess. If she was the betting type, she would have said yes. But it takes two to undertake such an exploration, and Gabriel was having no part of it.
No part of her.
"Why do you think it's safer to have me as a friend than as a partner?" she asked.
He stared at her. His face held no emotion, and yet she could sense his unease as easily as if it were her own. He didn't want to examine his reasoning. Didn't want to look closely at his feelings. If he had shut himself off from his twin brother, what made her think she'd even have a hope of cracking his reserve?
She waved a hand before he could answer her question.
"Forget it, Gabriel. Call me sometime and we'll go out for coffee or something."
"I will." He stared at her a moment longer, his gaze searching her face, as if memorizing her features. Then he turned and walked away.
She picked up the folder and shoved it into her bag. Then she opened her desk drawer, grabbing the few personal items she'd left in there: perfume, the pin Joe—the man she didn't actually know and yet had saved her life at least twice, and seemed to know so much about her—had given her, a hairbrush and several scrunchies.
She stood and grabbed the coat from the back of her chair.
But on the verge of leaving, she hesitated. As much as she'd hated what the broom closet had represented, at least it had been hers—somewhere she could escape to and be safe. A place few people knew existed or could be bothered finding.
Whatever happened after the Wetherton assignment, she knew she wouldn't be coming back here. One way or another her life was about to change.
Whether it was for the good or the bad, she wasn't entirely sure. And right at this moment, she didn't really care. Any sort of change had to be better than stagnating, which is precisely what she'd spent the last few years of her life doing. She'd let Jack take over her life to the extent that she had no life beyond the force. In some ways, she'd started to make the same mistake again, with the SIU and with Gabriel.
"No more," she vowed to the emptiness. From now on, she would try to follow her own course, no matter what.
Grabbing her bag, she turned and headed down to the labs.
* * * Gabriel climbed out of the car and slammed the door shut.
The Pegasus Foundation's home was a huge strip of barren land out in the middle of goddamn nowhere. The main building was square-shaped, draped in black glass that oddly seemed to suck in the light and cast thick shadows over the parking lot and the nearby limp-looking garden.
He took off his sunglasses and looked upwards, squinting slightly against the bright sunlight. The building was six stories high, and even from where he stood he could see the radar dishes, antennas and various other bits of apparatus bristling from the rooftop. But he also caught sight of something else— security, armed with guns. And the uniforms those men were wearing looked a hell of a lot like military uniforms.
But if the military was involved with Pegasus on something deeper than research on stealth, why bring in the SIU? It didn't make sense.