Dan reached one hand out to the little girl huddled under the desk palm up. She didn't look to be any older than seven or eight and she huddled herself further up against the desk, but when she spoke, her little voice was loud and clear. "Who are you? Are you going to try and hurt me too?"
Dan shook his head. "I'm not going to hurt you. My name's Dan. You can trust me. What's your name?"
The girl looked wary, but she said, "Emily."
"Come on, Emily." Dan said, reaching out for her again. This time, Emily took his hand and crawled out from under the desk, not looking behind her. Dan guessed that she had watched her mother murdered.
Emily didn't utter a sound as Dan led her through the office building. When he stepped out, he passed the little girl over to Keri. In other circumstances, Dan would have left comforting the traumatised child to Zoe. That was her area of expertise. But it was kind of hard to console a traumatised child when you were traumatised yourself.
While Keri tended to Emily, Dan moved to Zoe, pulling her into his arms and holding her tightly. When Zoe buried her face in his neck, her cheeks felt wet with tears and she whimpered, "The blood. Dan, the blood."
"Shh. I know. It's okay. You're safe." Dan whispered into her hair. "I think we were right . . . about Lisa being related to Emily Cartwright."
"Why?" Zoe asked, pulling away and wiping her tears from her cheeks. His words seemed to have the desired effect – they distracted her from the horror she'd seen.
"Well, for one, Lisa's dead and two, the girl," Dan said, jerking his head in Emily's direction, "is named Emily. And I'll bet you fifty pounds she's named after her grandmother."
Zoe nodded and glanced over at Keri, who had somehow managed to get the little girl to laugh. Then she looked over at Dan. "We need to get back to Frank. I have a feeling he's hiding something from us."
They obviously had to blindfold Emily when they took her down to HQ and Aneisha brightened up at the sight of the little girl. There were dried tears on her cheeks, but this barely bothered Emily as she revelled in the attention Aneisha gave her.
"What happened?" Frank asked.
"We got there too late, Frank." Dan said as Stella seemingly appeared out of nowhere. Dan looked down as he said quietly, "She was already dead. There was blood everywhere."
"Who found her?" Frank asked, obviously concerned with whose mental state he was going to have to deal with.
"Zo did." Dan said quietly. Frank glanced over at Zoe, who looked down at the table top as Dan gripped her hand, his fingertips brushing gently over the back of her hand.
"Are you okay, Zoe?" Frank asked gently.
"I'm fine."
"You're hiding something with this. You wouldn't tell us how you knew that this was going to happen." Dan said. "I think we need to know."
"I suppose you do." Stella said, but the way she said it made Dan think that she meant just him. Confirming his suspicions, Stella turned to the others and basically told them to get out. Reluctantly, they obeyed, taking Emily with them. Zoe was more reluctant than the others, looking back over her shoulder at Dan helplessly – torn between following orders and being there for Dan.
Dan gave her a small smile and mouthed, "I'll be fine," to her. Although this didn't put her completely at ease, Zoe did turn around and walk into the lift with her friends. Dan picked up the tiniest bit of resent from Keri to Zoe, but he didn't worry about it. It wasn't up to him to lose sleep over tiny little fights between his girlfriend and her sister. That was something the two girls were going to have to work out on their own.
Dan turned back to Stella and Frank. "So what's going on?"
"You know exactly what's going on." Stella said, crossing her arms over her chest.
"Excuse me?" Dan asked.
"We know you and Zoe and Tom were looking into Billy Backshaw." Frank said.
"No, Zoe started looking into him . . ." Dan trailed off, fully aware that he'd just walked straight into their trap. "Fine. Zoe and Tom looked into him and found out that he's my grandfather. So Zoe and I went to go see him, but he was just as insane as ever, so we went to go see Jack Watkins and –"
"You did what?!" Stella screeched.
"We went to go see Jack Watkins." Dan repeated.
"For Christ's sake . . . " Stella said, exasperated. "Dan, in case you haven't figured it out already, you aren't KORPS' favourite person. You are very far from it. Crime Minister already wants your head on a platter for interfering last year –"
"Zoe's not even the clone of the Mastermind." Dan said.
"It doesn't matter to her, Dan." Frank said. "You interfered, that immediately makes you a target. And now that they're after descendants again –"
"Wait, what do you mean, 'again'?" Dan asked.
Stella shot Frank a look and he sighed. "Around the same time Billy tried to get your father to join M.I.9, Dan, KORPS started targeting the descendants of great M.I.9 agents. Jemima Thursday's daughter was killed, and she was just one among many. Mason knew Jemima's daughter and that's part of what fuelled his escape from anything to do with M.I.9. That Lisa we sent you to get today, she was Emily Cartwright's daughter."
"Then that makes Emily Emily Cartwright's granddaughter." Dan said.
Frank nodded. "They went after Lisa once before, but M.I.9 got to her in time. Looks like we weren't so lucky this time."
Dan nodded. "So what happens to me?"
Frank sighed and raked a hand through his curly, unruly dark brown hair. "This is the dilemma. We can't move you, because if KORPS notice that we're down an agent, they're going to work it out. So basically, you get similar precautions that we take with Keri."
Dan nodded. "What'll happen to Emily?"
"Well, she's motherless now. Her father is, from what I can make out, an absolute scumbag."
"That's nice."
"Well he left her and her mother when Emily was three. I don't want to put her with someone like that, not when her life may be in danger. I doubt he'd take her anyway, so she's going to be put into an M.I.9 foster home, where she'll be safe."
Dan nodded. "Did they . . . Did they ever work out that Dad's Billy's son."
Frank nodded. "They did. Just after Kevin was born. They went after him too."
Dan's breath caught in his throat and he gripped the table. He forced himself to breathe as the full force of what was happening sunk in. He'd grown to accept that KORPS were after Zoe, and then after Keri. He'd even accepted a long time ago that Crime Minister wanted Frank's head on a stake for what he'd done to KORPS ten years ago, but suddenly when he was faced with he himself being their target, hypocritical or not, it was hard for him to accept. He wasn't used to being the one who needed protecting. He couldn't remember a time when he hadn't protected Zoe and he'd been protecting Keri for months simply because she was related to Zoe.
"Dan?" Frank asked, concerned. "Are you okay?"
"Zoe." Dan croaked, barely recognising his own voice. "Get Zoe down here."
Frank nodded and within minutes, Dan heard footsteps behind him. He turned around and saw Zoe standing behind him, her eyes a mixture of curiosity and concern, but her concern for him won out. Without a word, she walked up to him and wrapped her arms around him, resting her head on his shoulder. Dan buried his face in Zoe's shoulder, hoping that the smell of her perfume would calm him. For once, the one time that he really needed the calming sensation her presence usually provided, he felt the tears come harder and faster.
"It's just really hit, hasn't it?" Zoe whispered, her hands resting on the back of his shoulders. Dan pulled away slightly to look at her, his eyes sparkling with tears.
Zoe's fingers found his and she pulled him over the desk, forcing him down into a chair as she sat down. As he sat down, it struck Zoe how tall he was.
"How did you know?" Dan asked quietly.
Zoe offered him a small smile. "It never really hit home – what I am and that KORPS wanted to put the Mastermind's mind into my head until about a month after I left. I was staying with Kimmi, my sister in France. I just woke up one day and at first, I felt fine. But that day I just . . . I missed you more than I'd ever missed anything in my life. And then, suddenly, it hit me that this was actually happening and I was a clone of the Mastermind and he wanted to put his mind in my head. Then it got really bad. I kind of fell into a depression for about a month."
For some reason, although it was possible, the idea of a depressed Zoe was one that Dan couldn't imagine. Zoe reached forward and cupped his face in her hands, her eyes staring into his. "Dan, I didn't have anybody because I was too proud to come back here. I won't let the same thing happen to you, okay? Whether you want me to help or not."
Dan nodded and swallowed thickly, a tear hanging off his eyelashes. "I'm scared, Zo."
"I know." Zoe said gently, embracing him tightly. Dan allowed himself to be held as his body started shaking with his sobs, so violent that he almost had Zoe in tears.
