Free Starbase Human by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

said, “except in her DNA. The telomeres were marked.”
    “Designer criminal clone,” Deshin said. A number of criminal organizations, most operating outside the Alliance, made and trained designer criminal clones for just the kind of thing that had happened to Deshin.
    The clone, who replicated someone the family or the target knew casually, would slide into a business or a household for months, maybe years, and steal information. Then the clone would leave with that information on a chip, bringing it to whoever had either hired that DCC or had grown and trained the clone.
    “I don’t think she was a DCC,” Koos said. “The markers don’t fit anyone we know.”
    “A new player?” Deshin asked.
    Koos shrugged. Then he took one step forward. “I’m going to check everything she touched, everything she did, sir. But this is my error, and it’s a serious one. It put your business and more importantly your family in danger. I know you’re going to fire me, but before you do, let me track down her creator. Let me redeem myself.”
    Deshin didn’t move for a long moment. He had double-checked everything Koos had done before they hired Sonja Mycenae. Everything . Because Sonja Mycenae—or whatever that clone was named—was going to work in his home, with his family.
    “Do you think she stole my son’s DNA?” Deshin asked quietly.
    “I don’t know. Clearly she didn’t have any with her today, but if she had handlers—”
    “She wouldn’t have had trouble meeting them, because Gerda and I didn’t want a live-in nanny.” Deshin cursed silently. There was more than enough blame to go around, and if he were honest with himself, most of it belonged to him. He had been so concerned with raising his son that he hadn’t taken the usual precautions in protecting his family.
    “I would like to retrace all of her steps,” Koos said. “We might be able to find her handler.”
    “Or not,” Deshin said. The handler had killed her the moment she had ceased to be useful. The handler felt he could waste a slow-grow clone, expensive and well-trained, placed in the household of a man everyone believed to be a criminal mastermind.
    Some mastermind. He had screwed up something this important.
    He bit back anger, not sure how he would tell Gerda. If he would tell Gerda.
    Something had been planned here, something he hadn’t figured out yet, and that planning was not complete. Sonja (or whatever her name was) had confirmed that with her reaction to her dismissal. She was terrified, and she probably knew she was going to die.
    Deshin sighed.
    “I will quit now if you’d like me to,” Koos said.
    Deshin wasn’t ready to fire Koos.
    “Find out who she answered to. Better yet, find out who made her,” Deshin said. “Find her handler. We’ll figure out what happens to you after you complete that assignment.”
    Koos nodded, but didn’t thank Deshin. Koos knew his employer well, knew that the thanks would only irritate him.
    Deshin hated to lose Koos, but Koos was no longer one hundred percent trustworthy. He should have caught this. He should have tested Sonja’s DNA himself.
    And that was why Deshin would put new security measures into place for his business and his family. Measures he designed.
    He’d also begin the search for the new head of security.
    It would take time.
    And, he was afraid, it would take time to find out what exactly Sonja (or whatever her name was) had been trying to do inside his home.
    That had just become his first priority.
    Because no one was going to hurt his family.
    No matter what he had to do to protect them.

 
     
     
     
    THIRTEEN
     
     
    BRODEUR HATED WORKING in the more sophisticated autopsy theater. Nothing was in its usual place. All of the standard equipment was hard to reach.
    The specialized stuff, the things he had come in here for, were right near his triple-gloved hands.
    And the gloves really didn’t help. They made his fingers feel fat. Plus, he was sweating in the