Case Files
Teasers & Deleted Scenes
Next Season on Shadow Unit...Eight seconds with no airfoil.
One gray-blue eye, blearily squinched, emerged from under the zippered edge of a jacket. "From Hell's heart I stab at thee," Todd grated. "Team back?"
"Not yet."
"Is it the end of the world?"
Brady didn't need a mirror to know what his face said. Todd's expression was the only reflection necessary. "Pretty much yes."
Celentano pinched the bridge of his nose. "Where's Villette?"
"I told him to get some sleep." It wasn't an outright lie. He'd been nodding over his desk when Reyes last saw him.
"Bring him in."
Nikki furrowed her brow, trying to remember what they had been talking about. "I'm sorry--"
"You're forgetting," Renee said. "It's okay. People can't hurt you when they forget you, except sometimes it hurts to be forgotten. You said, when we met before, that you knew somebody who was like me. You said you could help."
"I don't know very much," Cieslewicz said, "but I have figured out that this thing is greedy. It doesn't wait."
Sky blue petals had faded to a milky blue-grey, the yellow center dried to the color of parchment. The leaves scraped softly as Cassie lifted the vase.
"They're lilies," she said. "Egyptian blue lilies. People usually call them lotuses."
You bounce twice and lean back into the arms of the wind.
Wordlessly, Brady spun his monitor. Whatever so troubled him must have been in the headline, because Reyes scanned it quickly and took a step back, arms folded in an unconscious defensive gesture as frown lines drew themselves between his eyebrows.
It was Lau who took pity on Todd and Falkner, and read aloud: "Police Baffled By Memphis Mummy."
"Fuck," Worth said, sounding--for a moment--more like Brady than like herself. "Did we kill the wrong guy?"
"Kids," Brady muttered, and ran a hand through carefully-combed hair. "Why's it always kids?"
Lau glanced up from the file; the thin cardboard was up high enough to cover her mouth. He couldn't see if she was smiling or frowning. "It's not always kids."
"Cape Cod was kids. And Omaha, and Sullivan College...."
Chaz looked up at Reyes. "Can Eileen Cho offer consent?"
"Not meaningfully."
"So you're conducting medical experimentation on human beings without their knowledge or permission?"
"All things are possible under heaven."
Daphne looked at him over the top of her sunglasses. "So, Todd. You ever try to push a gurney through a revolving door?"
"HIPAA violation," Brady said. "Drink."
Reyes didn't look down. "We know how to breed betas."
"Ah," Nikki Lau said, in the way that Vietnam vets said Ah to jumping at gunshots.
The body slumped in a chair, hands zip-tied behind it, a once-shining wire buried in the flesh of its throat. A blackened tongue lolled.
Chaz swallowed. Peristalsis caught and ached as if the garrote tightened over his own esophagus.
Slow and savage, Todd smiled. "At last! My right arm is complete again!"
Brady blew air out between pursed lips, too out of breath to quite manage a whistle. He straightened his spine and loomed down at Reyes. "Respectfully, sir? You are a flaming batshit nutbar."
It's just physics now.
Todd headed straight for the coffee machine, scrubbing his free hand through his hair. When he spoke, it wasn't a complaint. It was just a naked assessment of fact. "We can't do this."
"No," Brady said. "We can't."
Behind them, the whir of tires on wet asphalt, the sound of an opening door. Crisp footsteps sped across the tarmac, two sets rather than the one Todd had expected. He didn't turn; he already suspected, and he'd know soon enough. Don't hand away your advantages by letting them see your surprise, Solomon.
Reyes flicked water off the tight, short coils of his hair like a cat. The rain spattered his immaculate suitcoat, spotted the pewter-colored silk tie. He didn't say anything, just took one deep breath and sighed. The space between him and Chaz spoke volumes. He didn't turn to greet the new arrivals either, but he was facing in the right direction to see them. Falkner touched his sleeve with the back of her hand.
Everything functioning as it should. Even the fights. We'll hold the fort no matter who comes.
Pauley and Celentano became visible in Todd's peripheral vision before he realized that he was thinking of them as the enemy.
"You okay back there?" Lau asked, softly.
Daphne opened her mouth for the facile answer, and then paused. "No."
Chaz said, "You're all potential gammas."
"Me more so than most," Reyes answered.
"Nothing by digital means," Pauley said. "I've got cash. Victor didn't kick us out to drown."
"Of course not," Daphne said. "He wants her back as bad as we do."
"Shhh," he said, into Hafidha's ear. He pressed his face into her cheek so that Brady could barely hear his voice. "I'm going to take care of everything."
And then he lifted up the Glock and nosed the barrel through her braids until it pressed against the side of Hafidha's head, right behind the indentation of her temple.
You fall until it's time to fly.
