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I snorted. "And like all mad, would-be dictators, he got his comeuppance."
"In the labs of the Directorate. Quite fitting that he ends in a lab similar to the place where it all began."
I raised an eyebrow. "Is that how you plan to end? In a laboratory?"
His smile was grim and cold. "I intend to go down fighting."
And I had a feeling he wasn't talking about the self-destruct button built within his genes. I frowned "So, are you wolf, or part vampire, like Talon?"
"All wolf."
"Then why not clone yourself a mirror image?"
"Because, for all its advances, cloning still carries too many risks - risks I'd rather not inflict on any offspring of mine. And, as I said to you not so long ago, I am not involved in the cloning side of the research."
"But you are involved in the crossbreeding."
"No. My companies undertake research to discover the secrets of a vampire's long life."
And now I knew why - he was dying. And just in case he didn't discover the secret in time, he wanted a kid to carry his genes and his name.
It was a desire I could sympathize with - which made me wonder just how much he was playing me.
"Given Talon was running Moneisha and Genoveve, does that mean another lab brother runs the crossbreeding facility?"
He hesitated. "Not exactly."
"Meaning?"
He simply smiled, so I tried a different tack, "just how many of you clones are there?" We knew that there was one other, at least, besides Misha, but who knew how many Talon had gotten around to releasing?
He chuckled softly. "Not as many as you seem to think. All up, if you include Talon, there are five of the original cloning attempts left."
"Meaning, non-Talon clones?"
He nodded.
So, given Gautier was one, that left two we didn't know about. "What about the Talon-created clones?"
"I think roughly a dozen remain, though I have not been able to keep track of all Talon's creations, so there could be more. Most are dead, though, or soon will be dead."
"That self-destruct button you mentioned?"
"No, the Directorate. The mob you work for are an efficient killing machine, Riley."
Which is why I was fighting like hell not to become a guardian. "So what was the aim of the original five?"
He hesitated. "To carry on and perfect our lab father's research, by whatever means needed."
It was the "by whatever means needed" bit that had me worried. Talon had certainly shown no need to follow the rules, and the man behind the crossbreeding had proven he was ready to kill to keep his secrets.
And if that was the true aim, then why place Gautier at the Directorate?
"You knew I was in that facility, didn't you?"
"Yes, but I was not responsible for you being there, nor was I the one who tended to you there."
"So who did?"
