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impossible.”
    Gabriel frowned. “As you said, that’s impossible.”
    “With all the psychic deadeners we have around the place, there’s no way she can be using some form of talent to evade the probes. And yet, she registers neutral.”
    Finley held out the printouts. Gabriel silently accepted them and quickly leafed through the sheets. As Finley had stated, every test had come out neutral. He stopped at the BP, cardiovascular and EKG charts and raised an eyebrow in surprise. “Brain activity registers extremely high, considering the readout indicates she’d fallen asleep during some of the tests.”
    “That in itself would suggest some form of talent at work—if it weren’t for the fact that the psychic deadeners render
any
form of talent useless.”
    “Unless she has some form of talent that can evade the deadeners.”
    “Unheard of.”
    Gabriel glanced up from the printouts. “Until now, it was unheard of for anyone to come in as neutral.”
    Finley pursed his lips. “True.”
    “What do we know of her life before she joined the State Police?”
    “Basic stuff. She was left in state care at fourteen. She remained there until she was eighteen, and then joined the State Police.”
    “Have you done a check on her parents?”
    “State did, when she joined. They’re listed as missing. The case is still open.”
    Gabriel glanced up. “That’s not what I asked.”
    Finley cleared his throat. “No, we haven’t done a check on her parents.”
    “Then do one.” Gabriel hesitated, then frowned, rereading the last line of text again. “Body growth immature? What the hell does that mean?”
    “Basically, it means that, physically, she has the body of a fifteen-year-old.”
    “Finley, she’s twenty-nine years old.” And, he thought, remembering the firm roundness of her body pressed under his last night, she was certainly built like it.
    Finley shrugged. “None of us can explain it—and we ran those tests twice, just in case.”
    If she had the body of a fifteen-year-old, it suggested some sort of nonhuman background, because most nonhumans had a slower rate of development. Yet Finley’s tests had found nothing other than human in her makeup. “Best guess?”
    “That the printouts state the absolute truth.”
    For a human that was twenty-nine years old? Not likely. “Will you need to run more tests?”
    “Definitely. We found some anomalies in her blood results that need checking out, as well.”
    Gabriel flipped back several pages until he found the blood results. “An extra chromosome in her cells.” He glanced at the doctor. “We have any ideas on this one?”
    “Not one. As I said, we’d like to run more tests.”
    He didn’t miss the odd edge of excitement in Finley’s normally indifferent voice. Obviously, there wasn’t much excitement to be found in the labs of the SIU these days.He smiled slightly, wondering how the young doctor would react if he ever got his hands on a kite. He put the printouts back into order and handed them back. “Where is she now?”
    “Room 101.”
    “Book her for more tests tomorrow. And arrange a pass for her to get back in.”
    Finley nodded and headed for the door. Once the doctor had gone, Gabriel pressed the screen again. “You heard?”
    Stephan appeared on the screen. His normally strong features were little more than a pale replica, and there were dark shadows beneath his green eyes. Even his normally tanned skin had a translucent quality to it. Fear stirred deep in Gabriel’s gut. The one thing the Federation couldn’t afford, the one thing
he
didn’t want, was for Stephan to get any sicker.
    “Yes,” Stephan said softly. “Most interesting.”
    He somehow resisted the urge to question Stephan about the state of his health and tried to concentrate on the matter at hand. But it was difficult, especially when Stephan looked so close to death. He’d lost one brother recently. He didn’t want to lose another—and right now that looked like a