Breeds: Stygian's Honour Part 37

"She showed signs of advanced code deci- phering, even before the termination order went out. We need that ability to crack the code on the files Brandenmore had hidden.

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So far, even our best code breakers have only managed to decode a very minute amount of the files we found."

"Then you think there's something in the files there that will help Amber?" she asked quietly.

"At this point, we're willing to try any- thing," he admitted. "The few codes we've managed to break lead us to believe it's pos- sible. It's very possible."

Liza had a photographic memory. She could watch certain moves, not so much dan- cing, which had interested her as a young girl, but in fighting, it was as though her brain could telegraph the moves from her sight to her actions.

And Claire, oh G.o.d help them, Claire could figure out a puzzle in seconds. Jigsaw puzzles, even the most difficult, were child's play for her.

She could feel herself trembling, shaking from the inside out.

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Shaking her head, she looked up at him, uncertain, forcing back the fear. She had to force it back to be able to think, to make sense of everything.

"I can't be either of them," she whispered.

"How could I be, Stygian? It's not possible."

But it was possible. It was possible enough that dreams, nightmares and memories that weren't exactly memories, that weren't ex- actly clear, came together in her mind.

Lifting his hand again, he brushed the backs of his fingers over her cheek as he watched her with a quiet confidence she would do anything to be able to attain.

"I read an article before the rescues," he said then. "Rumors of Breed creation had be- gun leaking, and some enterprising young reporter had written of the possibility. He stated unequivocally that the manipulation of human and animal genetics could never result in a living, breathing, intelligent being.

Some things he stated seemed highly 533/862.

possible, but when in practical application, highly impossible. And I had to smile, be- cause it was that very creature he had deemed impossible who was reading the article."

"A deep-level core genetic test could reveal the truth," she whispered. "The Clean Slate DNA manipulation can't get past that."

"Proving the truth won't reveal the secrets," he stated then. "And it's the secrets Jonas needs to save Amber."

It was the secrets they needed.

She stared back at him, seeing the long, ribbon-straight, soft strands of midnight black hair as they trailed around his strong face, the muscular column of his neck, the broad, broad shoulders and powerful chest.

He was savagely handsome, and staring back at her with an intensity that made her feel as though she were the only woman in the world.

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To him, she was the only woman in the world, she thought, astounded. Yet, she wondered how she could be so surprised.

She had waited for him.

She had waited for him to touch her, to bring her to life, to awaken her.

"We'll go to the desert at daylight," he told her then. "Just you and I, with Dog's team watching over us. We'll go to the crash site before going to the area where the sweat lodge was erected. Let's go back, Liza. Let's see if we can find anything you may have lost."

"What if I don't come back, Stygian?" Her lips trembled as tears darkened her soft gray eyes. Did she fear she would get sucked back into some never-ending reality where she could only watch the world go by, rather than experiencing it?

"I won't let you go." Tightening his fingers in her hair, he pulled her head back, staring through the darkness to the glitter of her 535/862.

gaze. "Never, Liza. You will never again be on the outside looking in. You'll always be a part of me, and I'll never let you go."

She didn't speak. As he loosened his grip on her hair, she laid her head on his chest again and, he knew, stared into the darkness.

"I couldn't feel anything when I was there," she said softly. "No remorse, no love or hate. No fear."

"And now?" G.o.d, she was killing him. The emotions building inside her were like a blow to his heart.

If only he had been here to save her, to pull her from the darkness she'd been held in for so long.

"Now, I feel too much," she said faintly. "I don't know what I'm feeling, and I don't know how to handle what I am feeling. I just wish, when I was younger, that I had known how to hold on to myself rather than allow- ing myself to fade."

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He would have held her to him, just as he was holding her now, until she was old enough to be his reality.

Or, would he have held the wrong girl, and eventually, the wrong woman?

The question raged in his mind as she fell silent and eventually fell asleep against his chest.

That wreck; everything had changed the night Claire Martinez had taken her father's sports car, Liza with her, flying over a canyon and somehow missing the other side.

The two girls hadn't been found for hours, and when they had been located, their fath- ers hadn't called the EMS immediately. In- stead, they had called together the chiefs of the Six Tribes, the medicine men of the Na- tion. Only after they had treated the girls had an ambulance been called and they had been taken to the hospital.

The accident report had been accessed by Diane Broen before she had arrived in 537/862.

Window Rock. Her suspicious nature had read something into those events that even the Breeds had been unable to decipher. So- mething even Stygian had been unable to fig- ure out.

According to the blood tests and surface- level genetic testing, Liza wasn't Honor Roberts. Her DNA was different, but the DNA used for those tests had been collected before the experiments conducted in the Brandenmore labs. The blood and tissue samples were those collected when she was a young girl, hospitalized for the wasting dis- ease that had slowly been killing her.

Had a full-level DNA a.n.a.lysis been done?

One that went to the very center of the gen- ome, such as those done to detect recessive Breed genetics? After all, the serum used on the two girls had been derived from Breed hormones, while that used on the Breeds had been derived from both Breed and human hormones.

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Barring that, had their DNA been com- pared to their parents'?

As he felt her slip into sleep, Stygian found his mind racing. There were too many ques- tions, and far too many mysteries surround- ing his mate and her friend Claire Martinez.

The fact, though, was that there was no evidence to even raise suspicion that Liza and Claire weren't exactly who they claimed to be. Nothing but the fact that since they were children, no blood, tissue or saliva samples had been taken from either girl, even during their stay in the hospital after the wreck.

From the moment they left the hospital, their personalities had been different. Their looks had been altered from the plastic sur- geries needed, supposedly because of dam- age caused from the vehicle crashing into the canyon.

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The fact that no blood and tissue samples had been taken then was highly suspicious and riding the cusp of being illegal.

There were Diane Broen's suspicions, there were Jonas's suspicions and his own, but that wasn't proof. There was no proof at all that she was anyone other than who she was supposed to be.

As he glared at the ceiling, he heard the faint hum of his sat-phone, which he'd set on the bedside table. Glancing over, the text message had him closing his eyes briefly.

Five minutes. Connecting suite.

The message was from Jonas.

f.u.c.k, he didn't need this.

Dealing with Jonas wasn't something he wanted to do tonight, not while his own emo- tions were in such turmoil. Not while he was still trying to process the fact that his mate likely had no idea who she really was.

Not while he was still trying to get a grip on the suspicion that, somehow, the real Liza 540/862.

Johnson had ceased to exist somewhere around the time of that car accident.

In her place was Honor Roberts-but without Honor's memories, or the knowledge of who she was or who she had been. And if Liza Johnson was actually Honor Roberts, then that meant Claire Martinez would most likely be Fawn Corrigan, the target Gideon Cross was rumored to be determined to kill.

With a tight grimace, he eased himself from the bed.

Liza was sleeping. Stygian tucked the blankets about her shoulders to ensure she didn't get chilled.

Gathering his clothes, Stygian made his way to the connecting sitting room to dress quickly.

Once he pulled the low boots on and jerked the hem of his jeans over them, Stygi- an made his way to the door across the room, activated the digital keypad then punched in the code to disengage the locks.

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Closing the door carefully behind him, he moved across the room to the entrance and opened the door to admit Jonas, Rule, Lawe and Mordecai.

Lawe Justice's rumored recent refusal of the position of a.s.sistant director of the Bur- eau of Breed Affairs hadn't changed the fact that he was still one of Jonas's most trusted advisors. The fact that he was there for the meeting Jonas had demanded proved it.

"What do you want, Wyatt?" Stygian breathed out wearily as he closed the door quietly. "Liza's asleep, but she may not be for long. So whatever you have to say that you don't want her to hear, now's the time to do it."

He had no idea what the director wanted, but he could sense the fact that whatever it was, Liza would be offended by it. The fact that the director insisted on meeting after she would most likely have been asleep was the first indication.

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The look on Jonas's face wasn't comforting either.

Looking around the room, the director turned back to him slowly. "You're a lousy host, Stygian. There's not a d.a.m.ned thing here to drink."

"Yeah, well, I guess you taught me well then." He snorted. "There hasn't been a time I've come to the office that you've shared with me any of that whisky you're so proud of."

Jonas's lips kicked up at one corner as he inclined his head in acknowledgment. "Per- haps I made a mistake there," he stated, his voice remaining low. "I can get a drink when I return to my suite. What I can't get is the information you were paired with Ms. John- son to acquire. Are you any closer?"

Stygian crossed his arms over his chest and glared back at Jonas. "What do you think?"

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Jonas's nostrils flared as he obviously fought back his anger. "We don't have much time left, Stygian. Not just because of Amber.

The Council has begun transferring key sci- entists in both genetics as well as Breed physiology and mating heat to highly se- cured, secretive labs, while known high- ranking members of their elite guard have been making their way into the desert sever- al miles from here."

The Genetics Council's Elite Guard had, through the decades, been tasked with the kidnapping of the higher-profile women whose genetics were deemed essential for various creation projects. They were the best.

The most highly trained, elusive and compet- ent abduction specialists in the world.

"There's more going on here, and more players, than I can keep up with at one time."

Cavalier's growl was rough, his voice almost ruined as he faced Stygian, his expression bland. "I've been tracking transmissions 544/862.

from the soldiers in the desert as well as between President Martinez and his head of security, Audi Johnson.

Johnson and Martinez both are discussing the canyon where Liza and Claire went over. They're talking about whether or not they 'cleaned'

enough."

Whether or not they cleaned enough.

Stygian grimaced as anger began to burn inside him.

The Johnsons and the Martinezes knew exactly what had been done. They knew how their daughters had been brought back from the dead, and now Stygian wanted to know.

"Their fathers are lying to us," Jonas grit- ted out, the silver eyes flashing with merci- less fury. "You know it and I know it. With half-truths and carefully worded denials, they're lying through their teeth. The only way we're going to get the truth out of them is by forcing it out."

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Stygian gritted his teeth at the knowledge that regarding Liza and Claire's fathers, Jo- nas was entirely right. "Where does that leave us?"

"With Liza," Jonas stated softly, though his expression was determined. "I want to bring Ely and Ca.s.sie in, Stygian. Ely can run the samples just as she always does for mat- ing heat, and Ca.s.sie can do whatever the h.e.l.l it is she does. We could get the answers we need. And if we're lucky, maybe Ely can come up with something using the new mat- ing tests she's developed."

Dr. Elyiana Morrey, the Breeds' head sci- entist and doctor, worked tirelessly on find- ing the answers on the why and the how of mating heat. She was certain the answers were in the deepest layers of the genetics strands, and had actually found a way to be- gin comparing DNA before and after mating heat. Now, she just needed the new mates to work with.

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Because mating heat, like all things in nature, like all viruses that developed, never remained the same.

"I'll discuss it with her..."

"Discussing it would defeat the purpose,"

Jonas protested then. "If, as I suspect, a ritu-al took those memories and replaced them with someone else's, then warning her warns the safeguards placed on it. Risking that is out of the question. Besides, if she's aware of Ca.s.sie's ident.i.ty when she meets her, then she'll be on guard. That will also steal any advantage we have."