Page 112 of Red Zone Awakened

EPILOGUE

Sandrine Cherbourg’s office

Southern Territory

Sydney, Australia

Sandrine putthe papers down on her desk and leaned back in her chair.She crossed her legs and looked out over her view of the Sydney Opera House and the harbor beside it.It was a billion-dollar view, but it still wasn’t as good as Miriam Shepherd’s one from her head office in New York.Not because Miriam’s view was more appealing but because of the power that went along with it.

Power Sandrine very much wanted.

“This has been verified?”she asked her assistant, who silently waited beside her desk.

“Yes,” Angela said.“By several sources.”

She placed her hand on the report and drummed her red nails.“I want the original report.”

“I’m not sure…” She faltered as she registered the look on her face.There would be no excuses where this task was concerned.

She swallowed hard.“I’ll get right on it.Although it may take some time.The information’s with the Houston Forensic Department and is deemed highly sensitive.It’s locked up tight.”

She cocked an eyebrow at him.

“I’ll make sure you get all of the samples and any report that’s already been written on them.”

Sandrine inclined her head, and her assistant scurried toward the door.

“One more thing, Angela,” she said, stopping her in his tracks.

“Yes?”

“Make sure this information doesn’t make it into Miriam Shepherd’s hands.Am I making myself clear?”

“Yes.”The woman paled and then ran from the room.

Sandrine flipped open the report and started reading from the beginning again.She hadn’t believed her luck when Angela informed her that the information hadn’t made its way to Miriam yet.It was an oversight on the part of the Northern Territory’s Enforcement agency.Such a thing would never happen in her territory.Her people knew what was important to her.And this was very important.

While scanning the copied notes on the samples taken from CommTECH’s research facility after the siege, she couldn’t help but smile.Mace Armstrong wasn’t a reporter; that much was certain.In fact, according to the blood he’d left behind on the office window he’d broken to get out onto the ledge, Mace Armstrong was something else entirely.

Something the world had never seen before.

The company that owned the blood he left behind would own the research that went with it.Research into the proof that a fusion between animal and human DNA was possible.Research that could change the world forever.Research that would get Sandrine out of the Southern Territory and straight into the Northern one.

Where she belonged.