lingered in the air, mingling with the orange-scented furniture oil and the fragrant candles she loved to burn in the evening. The decor was simple, but suited her. She’d chosen earth tones in keeping with this desert place, much different from the lush tropical colors of the Miami mansion she’d shared with Jonas.
She dropped her keys on the desk in the corner of the living room, then headed for the kitchen and leftover pizza from the night before.
She zapped the pizza in the microwave, snagged a cold beer from the fridge, then sat at the table to enjoy her meal. But any peace the day had brought to her earlier had been destroyed by the unexpected events at the end.
What had they wanted from her? It was important enough that they’d hunted her down, pulled her over and brought her in. They apparently knew her mindset well enough to understand that she wouldn’t have come in to see them on her own.
Dammit, she had earned the right to be left alone. Even though she had known Jonas was a criminal, even though she had known he needed to be put behind bars, one of the most difficult things she’d ever done was agree to help the FBI put him there.
Pizza half-eaten, she got up from the table and carried her beer out to the back patio where the night sky was filled with a million stars.
When she’d first come to Phoenix over a year ago, she’d been on a quest to learn the truth about who she was and where she’d come from. What she’d discovered about her beginnings was like something out of a science fiction movie.
Her past included a murdered mother, a secret lab with human experimentation taking place and enough conspiracies to make her head spin.
But, in addition to the horrors she’d learned of, she’d also been united with two sisters who, like her, were part of an experiment, all three genetically enhanced with special gifts.
She upended her bottle of beer and took a deep swallow. Damn the FBI and damn Mr. Richard Blake for making her think about things she didn’t want to think about.
Her computer mentally called to her, reminding her that she’d promised to have the Chastain Pharmaceutical Company Web site done in a month and it was a huge job. It was easy to lose herself in work, and that’s just what she needed to banish all thoughts of the FBI.
She carried her beer back into the house and went into the spare bedroom, which she used as an office. In the past year she’d gained a reputation as a top quality Web site designer and had managed to earn a living by using her computer skills. It was a job she enjoyed and that allowed her to pick and choose the hours she worked.
As she waited for her computer to boot up she leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes, willing away the headache that niggled at the base of her skull.
The day had begun so well. She’d had lunch with Kayla, a friend of her late mother’s, who served as police lieutenant of the small town of Athens, Arizona. Then Lynn had driven out to Athena Academy and had walked the grounds of the school where the mother she never knew had once walked.
Visiting the state-of-the-art college prep school nestled at the base of the White Tank Mountains brought a comforting peace to Lynn. It was a place of connection for her, a piece of her mother’s history that Lynn cherished. She loved seeing the new science wing, which has been completed over the summer. Another friend of her mother’s, TV news reporter Tory Patton, had given the dedication speech at the ribbon-cutting ceremony in July. Lynn had visited with more of her mother’s dear friends afterward.
She’d never meant to make her home here in Phoenix, it had just happened. She’d always intended to return to Miami and Nick. When she’d first left him to seek the pieces of her life that had been missing, they’d managed to call and e-mail each other frequently. But, time had a way of slipping by and long-distance relationships rarely had a chance of working.
There had been no bitter blowup and destruction of her relationship with Nick, only the interference of different lives and different paths.
She frowned, blaming the unexpected appearance of the FBI for the whisper of regret that now filled her heart.
With her computer up and running she decided to check her e-mail before she got to work on the drug company’s Web site. She pulled up her e-mail program and typed in her password.
Her mailbox showed about two dozen new e-mails. Several she knew were work related, a couple were from cyberfriends, some spam that had managed to get past her filters, but there was one sender she didn’t recognize.
The return address read, [email protected].
Lynn frowned, trying to decide if she should open it or not. She had filters and blocks on the system that shouldn’t allow in any viruses or bugs, but she also knew she couldn’t be too careful.
Deciding to take a chance, she opened the message.
Athena sister Lynette,
You have come to our attention. Your special, genetic skills are needed in our battle. As friends of Rainy we need your help. The Oracle Network awaits you. We will be in touch.
Lynn stared at the note, her mind whirling. Delphi…Oracle…sounded like something from Greek mythology. It would be easy to dismiss the note as nothing but some sort of crazy ad campaign or spam except that it mentioned Athena, her special, genetic skills and the mother Lynn had never known.
There were only a handful of people who knew that she had been created by a human experiment, that the experiment had been a success in that she had been born with superhuman speed and hearing and other strengths.
Even Nick hadn’t known the entire truth about the circumstances of her birth and her full capabilities, although he had suspected she was physically gifted.
So, who had written the note and what was Oracle? She hit Reply. What is Oracle, she typed in, then hit Send. It took only a moment for her to get a message that the e-mail address of [email protected] was not a working address.
“Curiouser and curiouser,” she muttered. She spent the next half an hour trying to trace the e-mail address but came up with nothing. Definitely intriguing, but also rather suspicious.
Was it possible the note was from the FBI? She narrowed her eyes and stared at the message. It was pretty coincidental that she’d been detained by them earlier then came home to find this cryptic e-mail.
She closed the message, but was unable to still the new edge of agitation that rose up inside her. She didn’t like things she didn’t understand, things that didn’t make sense.
And she got the definite feeling that somehow the peaceful, quiet life she’d built here was about to explode.
Raymore, Florida
The ring of the telephone pulled Nick Barnes from the sofa, where he’d been cat napping for the past thirty minutes. He gazed at his watch and frowned. Who in the hell would be calling at midnight?
He grabbed the receiver. “Hello?”
“Is Haley there?”
Nick’s gut twisted at the sound of the deep male voice. “Sorry, you’ve got a wrong number.”
“I was just looking for Haley.”
“Nobody
