Total pages in book: 131
Estimated words: 121389 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 607(@200wpm)___ 486(@250wpm)___ 405(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 121389 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 607(@200wpm)___ 486(@250wpm)___ 405(@300wpm)
Revelations
Kaleb, I have a request for a piece of classified information.
—Ena Mercant to Kaleb Krychek
KALEB KRYCHEK LOOKED out at the ocean that crashed at the foot of the Sea House, while Ena sat in an armchair to his right, a cup of herbal tea lifted to her lips. “You’re sure?” he asked her.
“We did the run using the DNA print you provided to us.”
Kaleb had retrieved that print from an old Council medical archive, where such things had been kept to verify the identities of the Councilors for various access requirements. “What’s the relationship?”
“Shoshanna Scott’s genetics intersect with Ivan’s on such a level that it’s likely she’s his aunt.” Ena dropped the bombshell with elegant grace. “Our research has also revealed an N. Scott who is listed as having died at age twenty-nine. Interestingly, Shoshanna came on the scene twelve years after her sister’s birth, which might point to the family unit deciding the elder sister was unsuitable to be their heir.”
“The Scotts are extremely proud of their genetic line.” Kaleb had always considered them one of the most ruthless in the Net when it came to the “purity” of their genetics.
“Exactly so,” Ena agreed. “We could find nothing on Shoshanna’s sister past the date noted as being of her death, but Ivan’s father has confirmed that Norah was at least thirty when Ivan was conceived. She might’ve been wiped off the family tree at twenty-nine, but she wasn’t dead except to the Scotts.”
That was the way of the Psy in the time of the Council, Kaleb thought. Problems just disappeared. “Ivan’s mother must’ve been extremely intelligent to have survived.” The Scotts would’ve surely sent out a death squad to take care of a problematic member.
“It appears so.” Ena placed her cup down on its saucer. “Pity she chose drugs over a defection into another family more suited to her.”
Putting the cup and saucer on the side table beside her, she said, “Ivan has given me permission to be transparent with you in terms of this information. With the DNA link confirmed, he’s certain that the Scarab Queen is either Shoshanna Scott or another intimate blood relation.
“He says the psychic resonance was too powerful for it not to be a direct familial connection, and there aren’t that many Scotts in the running. It’s a small line. Shoshanna has a daughter, does she not?”
“Not one she chose to raise.” His sense was that Shoshanna had only agreed to the conception deal as part of her agreement with Henry; focused on her own power, she’d never appeared concerned with leaving a genetic legacy. “I believe the daughter was brought up as a member of Henry’s family group. She’s barely twenty-three.”
“Strange, how some cherish their children and others see them as nothing but pieces on a chessboard.”
And then there were those who were simply monsters who should’ve never sired a child, Kaleb thought. “It should be easy enough to get an indication of the likelihood that it’s a Scott—per my understanding, Ivan did significant damage to the individual concerned. Significant enough that they should be nowhere close to recovered.”
“I’ll wait to hear back.”
The news Kaleb discovered was unexpected to say the least. “According to all sources, Shoshanna is dead,” he told Ena the next day. “Catastrophic neural failure that her family is explaining away as the result of a genetic disease. Her body has already been cremated, and the daughter we spoke of—Auden Scott—is now in charge.”
“I have no real knowledge of her.”
“Neither did I before this meeting. She’s either been kept—or been careful to remain—out of view.”
Kaleb thought of those intense blue eyes looking out of an ebony-skinned face with Henry’s aristocratically masculine features made softer and more rounded, and felt his instincts stir. Despite her clear beauty, there was something … unusual about Auden; physically, she’d inherited only her stature and eyes from the maternal side of her line, but in every other way, she was very much Shoshanna’s progeny.
As cold and unblinking as a cobra.
“Do we believe that Shoshanna is dead?” Ena petted the black cat in her arms.
“I believe nothing when it comes to the Scotts, but Shoshanna isn’t a woman to give up power unless she had to.” She’d fought to the end to hold on to her position as a Councilor.
“Still … keep the Mercant network listening for her name. Even a whisper, and I want to know.” It wasn’t an order but a request; Kaleb knew better than to give Ena an order, and he felt no compulsion to do so.
Theirs was an alliance of equals.
“We will listen,” Ena murmured before turning to look at him. “Let us be wrong, Kaleb. Let us hope that Shoshanna is dust in the air, the PsyNet no longer under threat from her evil.”
Kaleb had never believed in hope, but Sahara, the woman who was his light in the darkness, did. So he would let her believe for both of them—while he watched for the creeping malevolence that hid in the open and crawled in the shadows.