(More confusion: she remembered a national drugstore chain, but nothing about herself.) The mirror was covered in condensation from the hot water. She walked up to it and wiped it away with her right hand.

A very attractive woman with neck-length straight dirty-blond hair, light blue eyes, and pale unblemished skin stared back at her.

Almost unblemished. Her right shoulder was bruised, probably from falling in the shower, and there was a scar along her left shoulder. That didn't come from the fall, though. As best she could tell, the scar was several years old.

She wondered what caused it.

On a hook on the wall to her right sat a white piece of cloth. It looked like some kind of jacket, with a rope-like belt at the waist. She grabbed it and put it on. It felt like silk. Or maybe satin. She wasn't sure what the difference between them was. And she couldn't remember what this article of clothing was called, but she knew it had a name.

Slowly, she padded out into the next room.

Any doubts she had that she was loaded evaporated as she stepped into the bedroom. She imagined that several inner-city apartments could fit into this one bedroom. Everything in it was in the most pristine shape, yet there was a sense of age age-that everything in this room was older than she was.

Of course, she had no idea how old she was. She wasn't even sure how old she looked even after looking at herself in the mirror.

Tying the belt-no, sash sash-of the whatever-it-was-she-was-wearing, she walked through the bedroom. A dark red dress lay neatly on the bed. She guessed that it was something she was supposed to wear when she got out of the shower.

It was a double bed with two sets of pillows. Did she live here alone?

Only then did she acknowledge the extra weight on her left hand. Aside from the white thing, she did wear one other item: a gold ring. The ring symbolized-something. It didn't appear to have any kind of design, just a flat ribbon of gold wrapped around her third finger. It meant something something, though, she knew that much, and it had something to do with whether or not she lived alone. But she couldn't put the pieces together. Yet.

She walked over to the window. Pushing aside the thick curtains with the odd patterns on them, she saw a forest. Most of the trees were bereft of leaves, and those that were still intact were yellow, red, or brown. That meant it was autumn.

Thrilled to add another item to the list of Things She Could Recall, she took a moment to marvel at the sunset. Or maybe it was a sunrise. She had no idea what time of the day it actually was, but the sun was low, painting the sky glorious shades of purple and yellow.

Next to the window was a writing desk. A pad of paper sat in the center of it, with the words today all your dreams come true written in ink on the top sheet.

She frowned. What the h.e.l.l was that that supposed to mean? supposed to mean?

There was an ornately designed pen next to the pad. She grabbed it with her left hand-thus confirming that she was left-handed, for what that was worth-and started writing.

By the time she got as far as today all your she stopped. The handwriting wasn't remotely similar.

Did she share that bed with someone else? Or did the person who was responsible for rendering her unconscious in the shower leave this note?

It didn't make sense.

But then, nothing made sense right now.

She walked over to the dresser drawer, grateful that she knew what that, at least, was.

The two top drawers revealed linens and underwear, all neatly folded and arranged and lending more credence to her earlier neat-freak hypothesis.

When she opened the third drawer, she gasped.

A sheet of gla.s.s sat on top of this drawer, blocking simple access to its contents. Etched in the gla.s.s was a numeric pad over two words: locked and unlocked. The former word was blinking in green.

That wasn't nearly so scary as what was under the gla.s.s.

Guns.

Several of them.

And, for some reason, she knew for sure that these were among the finest and most up-to-date weaponry that money could buy.

Part of her wished she could remember the key code to unlock the gla.s.s barrier, a.s.suming she ever did know it. Another part of her was grateful that she didn't.

What did this say about her? Were the guns hers? The person she shared the house with? Both? Did they belong to whoever wrote the note? Maybe she was the intruder and the person who wrote the note owned the guns.

Too many questions. Not enough answers.

Bathrobe! That's what the white silk or satin thing was called.

She chuckled to herself. That was one answer, anyhow.

But it didn't help her with the guns. Or the cut on her shoulder. Or the ident.i.ty of-well, anyone.

Now that she knew what it was, she also realized she might as well take the bathrobe off. She had found underwear, as well as the dress. Something weird was going on, and while the dress didn't look one hundred percent practical, it was more so than the bathrobe.

The dress-which had an odd cut, extending down practically to her ankle on the outer part of her right leg, but cut in a U-shape, leaving her legs free. On the left side, the dress only came to her hips. It gave her a s.e.xy look that also permitted her legs a certain freedom of movement.

After retreiving a pair of biker shorts-why had she known that was what they were called?-and a pair of thigh-high boots, she put the dress on over them. There was something she thought might be the right thing to wear over her chest, but she couldn't remember what the d.a.m.n thing would be called. Anyhow, the dress had small straps that didn't seem conducive to wearing anything under it at the chest area.

Somehow, putting on normal clothes made her feel better.

She stepped out into the next room. It seemed to be-well, she didn't know what it seemed to be. It was another big room, full of old furniture, wood paneling, and high ceilings. At the (very) far end of the room was a statue of a woman with wings, covered in plastic. Looking at it, she thought it should have been outside, for some reason.

A framed picture caught her eye on one of the wooden tables.

Picking it up, she saw that it portrayed her and a man, both dressed in funny outfits.

In a flash, she realized not only what the picture represented, but why she wore a gold ring.

She and the man in the picture were married.

This, in turn, raised more questions. Was the money that paid for this mansion hers or his? Or both? Did he write the note on the table? Did he attack her in the shower? Where was he?

There was certainly something familiar about the man in the picture. She knew him, though whether that familiarity was a good one or not, she couldn't tell.

Right now, she was just grateful for any any feeling of familiarity. She certainly wasn't getting it from this house. The more she walked through it, the less she believed that this place was hers. It didn't feeling of familiarity. She certainly wasn't getting it from this house. The more she walked through it, the less she believed that this place was hers. It didn't feel feel right. right.

A heavy thud startled her. She set the picture down, and turned toward the statue. When she first entered the room, she had thought it to be in an alcove, but she realized now that it was a doorway to a vestibule or hallway or something-and there was a door or a window that had just been opened. Wind was now rustling the plastic that covered the winged-woman statue.

"h.e.l.lo?"

n.o.body replied.

She moved toward the doorway, all the while wondering at the absurdity of instinctively knowing the word vestibule vestibule, yet taking five minutes to remember what a wedding ring and a bathrobe were.

Cautiously, she walked closer to the statue, now really wishing she had the codes that would allow her access to those guns. She had no idea whether or not she knew how to use them, but she had the feeling that just holding one in her hand would put her in a better position right now.

Sure enough, there was a door here-an old wooden one with a bra.s.s pull handle that was, for some inexplicable reason, up around her neck level. The door was so big, she wondered if it had been built with giraffes in mind.

It was only slightly ajar. Based on the breeze that was still fluttering the plastic on the statue, it was quite possible the wind had knocked the door open.

She started to step outside, then stopped. It was growing darker. That beautiful sky signified sunset.

Looking around, she quickly spied several switches next to the door. Instinctively, she turned them on.

This was the right move. Where it had been dim on the other side of the door, it was now lit up like daylight. Whoever built this place wanted people to be able to get around outside at night if they had to. A reasonable precaution since, based on that forest outside the bedroom window, they were in the middle of nowhere. Any significant illumination there was to be had around here was going to come from the house.

Opening the door all the way, she stepped outside. A blast of cold air caused gooseb.u.mps to rise on her exposed arms and legs, making her wonder if stepping outside without seeing if the house came equipped with a coat was such a hot idea.

The doorway led to a sheltered walkway that bordered the house-house, h.e.l.l, it was a mansion-the shelter supported on the outside by columns with ridges in them.

She found she couldn't remember what kind of columns they were, though she was pretty sure it had something to do with being greasy. Maybe.

The walkway was covered with brown leaves that crinkled under her booted feet. The sound was pleasant, almost soothing in its harshness. It reminded her of-something. Another familiar feeling that ultimately meant nothing without context.

As much to hear the sound of her own voice again, she said, "h.e.l.lo?"

Another sudden noise made her jump, but this time it was a huge flock of birds, who took her voicing as a prompt to all fly off into the evening air at once.

Shaking her head, she turned to go back inside. If nothing else, it was freezing out here.

Then the breeze started.

No, this wasn't a breeze. This was wind.

And it was getting closer.

The dead brown leaves rustled and started flying up into the air and along the ground toward the mansion, as if being pushed by a mental force.

Or by a helicopter.

She had no idea where that thought came from, but it was one she didn't like very much, and thought she'd have an easier time dealing with inside. Besides which, the wind was getting stronger.

Running toward the door, she almost stumbled. The thigh-high boots may have looked good with the dress, but they weren't much more practical than the bathrobe had been.

She reached the doorway and took another quick look around to see if she could see anything that would explain the sudden wind-like helicopters. Why she was so sure that they were causing this-especially since she couldn't hear hear anything besides the leaves rustling, and didn't helicopters usually make lots of noise?-she couldn't say. anything besides the leaves rustling, and didn't helicopters usually make lots of noise?-she couldn't say.

But the wind had gotten worse; leaves and the grit of the ground were being buffetted about the air now, and was in danger of getting in her eyes. She made a grab for the door- -only to be grabbed around the stomach and pulled inside.

She struggled initially as the man-for it was a man, but not the man in the wedding photo-dragged her inside, but she didn't put up much of a fight, mainly because of the bright lights that now shone through the window.

Something was happening.

"Don't touch me!" she screamed at the man. "Get away from me!"

He let go, but not through any impetus from her: gla.s.s shattered as something that looked like a hockey puck came crashing into the room. One second after it landed on the wooden floor, it let loose with a blast of cordite that sent her and her would-be abductor sprawling to the floor.

Her head swam, the cordite in the air making her vaguely nauseous and leaving a bitter taste in her mouth. She wondered how they could make a hockey puck do that-and what a hockey puck really was, since she a.s.sociated the round, flat black disc with that phrase, but had no idea what the individual words actually meant.

Or, for that matter, why she knew what cordite was.

She shook her head, trying to clear it, hoping to stave off a headache that was starting to build.

Then more shattered gla.s.s, an endless stream of it.

Looking up, she saw five people dressed in all black and wearing face-covering masks. They came in feet first, apparently swinging in on cables. She couldn't imagine anyone moving like that, yet the maneuvers had an odd feeling of familiarity, like she'd done them herself.

The five people were loaded for bear. Each of them carried at least two guns that she could see, and a variety of other pieces of equipment she couldn't quite make out-it was all black on black, and the hockey puck's blast still had her blinking spots from in front of her eyes.

The man who'd grabbed her was a tall man with very short brown hair, wearing a dress jacket over a light blue shirt. His pants were also dark, but didn't match the jacket. As soon as the five people burst in through the windows, he pulled out a gun from a shoulder holster.

In an instant, she realized that the man was a police officer, and his weapon was a standard RCPD-issue Beretta.

If only she could recall what the "RC" in RCPD stood for.

As soon as the cop had his Beretta out, one of the black-clad intruders grabbed his right wrist and, in one fluid motion, pulled his arm behind his back, knocked him face-down onto the floor, and forced him to drop the pistol.

"What're you doing? I'm a cop cop!"

One of the other intruders pulled his jacket and shoulder holster off.

"I told you, I'm a cop cop!"

The first intruder removed the cop's own handcuffs from his back belt loop while the second one rooted through his jacket to pull out his wallet.

"You're breaking my arm," the cop said as the intruder handcuffed his arms behind his back.

She watched all this with a combination of confusion and dispa.s.sion. No one seemed to be paying any attention to her. Another one of the black-clad people ran over to the mirror on the far end of the room. He opened a panel with two k.n.o.b switches, which revealed a socket of some kind.

This particular member of the invasion team had some kind of minicomputer on his left forearm. It flapped open to reveal a small monitor on the upper portion and a keyboard on the part still parallel to his arm. He took a wire that was attached to the minicomputer on one end and plugged it into the socket.

Two more figures walked into the room through the now-shattered windows. One of them headed straight for her. She sat up. One of the straps of her red dress had fallen off her shoulder, and she pulled it up.

Looking up at the figure, she couldn't make out any features behind what she now remembered was a gas mask.

"Report." The man-it was definitely a man-had a deep, rich voice, only slightly m.u.f.fled by the gas mask.

She had no idea how to respond to his request.

No, not a request. This was an order. Whoever she was, she must have been this man's subordinate.

He grabbed her by the shoulder and yanked her to her feet. She thought about resisting, but he grabbed her right on the sore part of her right shoulder, and she winced in pain.

"Report now now."