Molehunt (36 page)

Clever, mole, but a bit too clever
.

Nobody could survive that blast, except as ash. There would be no body count. Two orderlies and one patient would be unaccounted for. The mole would assume three deaths, including hers. The mole was in RIM, the most dangerous place for Anneke to be. As the organisation's newest hero, RIM wanted to take her back into the flock, shower her with honours, give her a promotion – even a pay rise. All very nice, except one of the people lining up to shake her hand would be equipped with a dermal toxin – or worse.

Colonel Jake Ferren had promised Uncle Viktus that he would look after Anneke if anything untoward happened. He was surprisingly happy to take Deema into his own family. Given the right circumstances, the child might become another Arial Naproxa.

Now there was a dream to hang on to.

It was true that Deema was vulnerable to the mole. However, her link to Anneke was her best protection. Should the mole kill her out of sheer spite, people might remember there had once been a mole hunt, and that nobody was ever caught. Not a good move for someone who didn't want to be noticed.

By framing her, the mole had shown Anneke the best and safest way to work. And that was outside RIM, where he could not see her.

Now someone was going to die. And it wasn't going to be Anneke Longshadow.