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development that’s being designed and built by changelings.” He shrugged, fully aware it made the musculature of his shoulders stand out under his T-shirt. Like any cat, he liked to be admired, but this time it was a deliberate attempt to make Sascha react.
    She looked away. “So you already knew you’d fulfill your part of the bargain when you negotiated the bonus.”
    â€œOf course.”
    â€œI consider myself bested.” But when she glanced at him, he saw anything but meek acceptance.
    Good thing he’d never liked easy prey.

CHAPTER 5
    Sascha returned to the Duncan building and made a quick visit to her apartment before heading up to her mother’s office. She’d begun repairing the fissures in her inner shields the moment she’d left DarkRiver and by the time she walked into the office, her heart was locked behind so many layers of power that she betrayed nothing, even when she found Santano Enrique ensconced with Nikita.
    â€œCome in, Sascha.” Nikita looked up from the computer screen where she was showing Enrique something.
    â€œHello, Sascha. I haven’t seen you for a while.”
    â€œCouncilor Enrique.” Sascha bowed her head in a respectful nod. Night-sky eyes met hers.
    Belying his Latin name, the other cardinal was a tall blond with almost too-pale skin. Nothing about him said he was sixty years of age but Sascha was well aware of the time he’d had to hone his considerable powers.
    â€œNikita tells me you’re running your own project.”
    Sascha wasn’t surprised that her mother had shared the information with the other Councilor. Enrique was an academic, not a business rival. That made him no less deadly. None of the Council were people you’d turn your back on. “Yes, sir.”
    She’d always been uneasy around Enrique. Maybe it was because he was an off-the-scale Tk-Psy with so much telekinetic power that he could crush her without blinking. Or maybe it was because he had a way of looking at her as if he could see inside her skull. She wanted nobody in the confines of her mind.
    â€œI have every confidence in you—you are Nikita’s daughter, after all.” Walking out from behind the desk, he looked her up and down. “Though the genetics seem to have taken an unexpected direction.”
    â€œShe has no genetic deficiencies,” Nikita stated. “I chose her father with great care to the mixing of our genes. And I produced a cardinal.”
    Sascha tried to understand the conversational undercurrents between them without success—the Psy were great at keeping secrets and she was talking to two masters of the art.
    â€œOf course.” Enrique smiled the cold smile of the Psy.
    â€œI have a lecture to prepare so I’d better be going. I look forward to seeing more of you, Sascha.”
    â€œYes, sir.” She kept her tone robotically flat, not saying another word until he’d walked out and she’d closed the door behind him. “It’s not like Councilor Enrique to visit you here.”
    â€œHe wanted to talk away from prying eyes.” Nikita’s tone said that that was the end of the discussion.
    â€œI need to know, if I’m going to start taking on more responsibility.”
    â€œYou don’t need to know this.” Her mother put her arms on the desk. “Tell me about the changeling.”
    Sascha knew it would do no good to push. The woman who was sitting in front of her was part of the most closed and secret society in the world, the Psy Council.
    They are Council. They are above the law .
    It had taken a changeling to make her see the truth. The Council were a law unto themselves. When they spoke, the PsyNet trembled. And when they sentenced an individual to rehabilitation, there was no Court of Appeal.
    Looking into her mother’s cool brown eyes, Sascha accepted that if the moment came, Nikita would vote to put her own daughter in the Center