Conspiracy Game
Page 18
“They’re legendary as snipers,” Nicolas volunteered.
“Apparently Dr. Whitney believes so as well. He has been attempting for some time to manipulate Jack Norton into meeting a woman named Briony Jenkins. I want you to note Briony is a type of plant just as Lily, Dahlia, and Iris are.” She sent a faint apologetic smile to Flame for using the name Dr. Whitney had given her. “You know how he liked to dehumanize us. No real names and no birth dates.”
“Briony is one of our lost sisters,” Flame said softly, her fingers tightening around Gator’s. “I don’t remember her. Even when I try.” She rubbed her temples, frowning, trying to ease the headache that always accompanied working at remembering the girls Dr. Whitney had experimented on.
“In this case, Flame,” Lily explained, “I don’t think we’ve forgotten her just because he tried to erase our memories, it’s because she was very young when he sent her off. He actually did adopt her out.”
Flame leaned forward. “What? It’s not one of his elaborate stories to cover what he really did with her? He pretended Dahlia was adopted and he locked her up in a sanitarium. He certainly wrote a wonderful tale about my adoption when all the time I was locked in a laboratory being given cancer. Are you absolutely certain Briony was really adopted by someone?” There was a hitch in Flame’s voice.
Beneath the cover of the table, Gator wrapped his arm around her waist to give her comfort.
Lily inspected her hands before speaking. “My father was a man who believed in having as many controls as possible. I wasn’t enhanced physically, so I’m the control for that experiment. Briony was enhanced both physically and psychically, and he chose the parents he wanted for her, a circus family living in Europe. The father was a United States citizen and the mother was Italian. They already had four boys and wanted a daughter desperately. They were also in need of a lot of cash to buy in as partners for the circus.”
Lily looked around the room. “Flame and Dahlia were raised in a closed environment. Briony was raised with a family, although her training was directly overseen by my father. Detailed reports were sent weekly of Briony’s physical and psychic training. It was rigorous, although certainly she didn’t suffer from the training, but there were huge problems. Her family believed her to be autistic because she couldn’t function around people. She isn’t an anchor, and the toll on her not being able to filter out sound and emotion from those around her must have made her life hell. It’s obvious from his notes, Whitney wanted to see if, after being raised in a loving environment, Briony would have the same abilities as Flame and Dahlia. He feels a child raised by loving parents may lack determination. He deliberately sent a child, who wasn’t capable of living in close proximity to others without suffering severe pain, into a very crowded and public environment to see if she was tough enough. Whitney has many notations saying she surprised him with her abilities in the face of continual pain. From what I’ve read, in spite of numerous physical problems, she performs with her family, is extremely intelligent, and every bit as well trained as any GhostWalker. And he provided his own doctor for her care and designed her education, which her parents agreed to follow to the letter.”
Lily’s eyes glistened with tears for a moment. “I think he had her parents murdered when they objected to his sending her to Colombia. Jack Norton was in Colombia at the time. The parents were beginning to object to Whitney’s continual interference in their lives now that she was grown, and he wrote that they were in the way. Later he wrote: problem solved.”
Flame pressed her fingers against her mouth, her hand visibly shaking. “We have to find her, Lily. What does Whitney want from her?”
“He wants a baby. He wants the child to be a product of Jack Norton and Briony Jenkins. He’s spent millions maneuvering behind the scenes in order to bring them together. Right at this very moment, she’s in Kinshasa. She and her brothers were paid an exorbitant fee in order to get them to perform in a music festival there.”
There was another small silence. Logan broke it. “You’re saying Whitney was behind the senator’s plane going down in the Congo? That he tipped off General Ekabela that Ken Norton was leading a rescue mission?”
“Jack was supposed to lead the rescue, remember?” Lily corrected. “Ken stepped in when Jack couldn’t get back from Colombia in time. This was all about watching Jack perform. Was he worthy of donating the sperm? Jack is one of the more powerful GhostWalkers. We all know that. He has extreme talents, and I’m willing to bet Briony matches him in every way. Jack was the one meant to be captured. He was the one meant to escape and make his way to Kinshasa. Ken was used to draw him to the Congo, that’s why Ekabela didn’t have Ken killed immediately.”
“Kinshasa is no small place,” Kadan pointed out.
“Briony’s brother is a former Navy SEAL and served with Jack. They have a history. Jack saved his life. I’d say the setup is more than perfect. Jack is going to go straight to him if he’s escaped.”
Kadan shook his head. “I can’t see Ekabela letting him get away no matter how much money Whitney pays him. Ekabela has wanted Jack for a long time. He knows Jack is capable of taking him out and would if the order came down. The general is going to kill him.”
“Certainly Whitney expects him to try. Whitney created the ultimate weapons. What’s the use if he can’t see them perform?” Ryland asked.
Logan swore softly under his breath. “Can we get to Jack?”
“We’ve tried. We hit two different camps where he was reputed to have been held. They were long gone. In the last one, it looked as if a fight had taken place. There were bodies and a lot of blood, but no Ekabela and no Jack.”
“What about Briony Jenkins? Can you get to her?”
“We need a way to extract Jack. If we warn her… ”
“So you’re using her as bait.” Flame’s head snapped up, her eyes stormy. “Is that what we are to you, Kadan? Is that what she is? Something to use so you can get your GhostWalker back?”
Gator put a restraining hand on her arm, but she shrugged it off, glaring at the other man across the table.
Kadan shrugged with his usual calm. “We’re all GhostWalkers, Flame. Neither Norton nor Briony is expendable as far as I’m concerned. If Whitney has targeted Briony, he’ll eventually try to reacquire her. Jack Norton is her best bet for protection. I’m not willing to give up either one of them. Even if we did manage to send word to Kinshasa, and the chance of getting there before this is over is not good, why would she even believe us?”
“But she isn’t an anchor?” Ian asked.
Lily shook her head. “No, and it’s surprising that she’s managed to exist in the environment she has. My father has written copious notes about her ability to withstand pain and carry out her mission. In this case, performing with her family in front of so many people. She’s a strong telepath as are both Jack and Ken Norton. She has the same abilities that both of them have.”
“Which are?” Kadan prompted.
“Which brings us back to mosquitoes,” Lily said. “Mosquitoes can sense carbon dioxide and lactic acid up to one hundred feet away. When we breathe, humans, along with other mammals and even birds, give off these gases. The chemicals in sweat also attract mosquitoes.”
“Are you saying Jack and this woman, Briony, can do that as well? Scent people by breathing and sweat?” Ian asked.
“Yes. Absolutely they can. They were born with the same olfactory system in their noses, as we all were. Mosquitoes have receptors that allow them to use that system efficiently. Briony and Jack both have receptors.” A small smile escaped. “Although their receptors are not in antennae. Mosquitoes also have heat sensors, as do Briony and Jack. And last, but not least, mosquitoes have visual sensors.”
“I’m seeing a pattern here.” Ian flashed a grin around the room. “No wonder the man is good in the jungle. He can just home in on his targets.”
“Actually you’re right, he can. He also has the ability to change his skin color to match his surroundings.”
“Like a chameleon?” Ian asked.
“Contrary to popular belief, chameleons can’t display limitless colors and do not change colors in a camouflage response to their surroundings. Their skin changes in response to temperature, light, and mood,” Lily explained. “The hormones that control the melanin-containing cells can vary in concentration over the chameleon’s body, producing elaborate colored patterns. Some patterns are good camouflage, while other patterns are more showy stripes or spots in contrasting colors that signal the chameleon’s mood.”
“But chameleons don’t have the same skin we do,” Kadan pointed out. “So far, Whitney hasn’t introduced any alien DNA into us, has he?”
“A chameleon has four layers of skin. The outside layer has both red and yellow color cells. Inside that layer are two more layers, both reflecting light, one blue and one white. The inner layer is complicated and contains pigment granules called melonophore cells. The melonophore has dark brown pigment called melanin.”
“The same stuff that colors human skin brown or black?” Ian asked.
“Exactly the same stuff,” Lily acknowledged. “Humans, by the way, also have red and yellow color cells. So if you could independently and precisely control the hormone levels for each of the melanin-containing cells, you could create a wide variety of color patterns within the ranges allowed by multiple-color cell layers.”
“In a human? How could you do that?” Kadan asked.
“Through a distributed network of nano-computers associated with the melanin-containing cells: one such nano-computer.”
Ian shoved a hand through his red hair. “I hate it when you start talking like this. It makes me feel stupid.”
“Each nano-computer is a few hundred molecules in size, and its primary purpose is to regulate the hormone level of the melanin-containing cell with which it’s associated. It has one more function-something like a sperm cell, if injected into the bloodstream, it will find its way to a melanin-containing cell that currently doesn’t have a ‘nano-computer’ and latch on to it.”
Flame frowned. “So you’re saying the idea is to inject a zillion of these into the bloodstream, and they will sort themselves out into a distributed computing network, one nano-computer per melanin-containing cell? What controls them?”
“The nano-computers change the hormone level they are allowing-and hence the colors those color cells are displaying-when they are exposed to a magnetic field of a certain strength.”
Logan burst out with “Damn it, Lily, are you sure?”
She nodded. “Jack and Ken Norton have extensive files. They’re very strong telepaths as well as having many other talents on a lesser level. Both can use telekinesis. Psychokinesis, more commonly referred to as telekinesis, is the ability to move things or otherwise affect the property of things with the power of the mind. Of all psychic abilities, true telekinesis is the rarest-and the most difficult to control. I know because I have some small talent-nothing like theirs. And I believe Briony must have this talent as well. Not only did both men test strong in that area, they were enhanced even further. They’ve apparently had the ability to communicate telepathically from the time they were toddlers.”
“Let’s go back to the ability to change skin color into camouflage,” Logan said. “If they need a magnet to control the nano-computers, do they carry it? And if hormone levels trigger the capability, how can they keep from revealing their mood swings like the chameleon does?”
“Good question. They’re trained with biofeedback, and both men have amazing control. Dr. Whitney implanted an MRI-like device inside both of the Nortons. It radiates the magnetic pattern outwards to the surface of the body. The device responds to a mental signal the brothers first learned in biofeedback training, but because of their extensive talent, it has become second nature to them.”
“Apparently Dr. Whitney believes so as well. He has been attempting for some time to manipulate Jack Norton into meeting a woman named Briony Jenkins. I want you to note Briony is a type of plant just as Lily, Dahlia, and Iris are.” She sent a faint apologetic smile to Flame for using the name Dr. Whitney had given her. “You know how he liked to dehumanize us. No real names and no birth dates.”
“Briony is one of our lost sisters,” Flame said softly, her fingers tightening around Gator’s. “I don’t remember her. Even when I try.” She rubbed her temples, frowning, trying to ease the headache that always accompanied working at remembering the girls Dr. Whitney had experimented on.
“In this case, Flame,” Lily explained, “I don’t think we’ve forgotten her just because he tried to erase our memories, it’s because she was very young when he sent her off. He actually did adopt her out.”
Flame leaned forward. “What? It’s not one of his elaborate stories to cover what he really did with her? He pretended Dahlia was adopted and he locked her up in a sanitarium. He certainly wrote a wonderful tale about my adoption when all the time I was locked in a laboratory being given cancer. Are you absolutely certain Briony was really adopted by someone?” There was a hitch in Flame’s voice.
Beneath the cover of the table, Gator wrapped his arm around her waist to give her comfort.
Lily inspected her hands before speaking. “My father was a man who believed in having as many controls as possible. I wasn’t enhanced physically, so I’m the control for that experiment. Briony was enhanced both physically and psychically, and he chose the parents he wanted for her, a circus family living in Europe. The father was a United States citizen and the mother was Italian. They already had four boys and wanted a daughter desperately. They were also in need of a lot of cash to buy in as partners for the circus.”
Lily looked around the room. “Flame and Dahlia were raised in a closed environment. Briony was raised with a family, although her training was directly overseen by my father. Detailed reports were sent weekly of Briony’s physical and psychic training. It was rigorous, although certainly she didn’t suffer from the training, but there were huge problems. Her family believed her to be autistic because she couldn’t function around people. She isn’t an anchor, and the toll on her not being able to filter out sound and emotion from those around her must have made her life hell. It’s obvious from his notes, Whitney wanted to see if, after being raised in a loving environment, Briony would have the same abilities as Flame and Dahlia. He feels a child raised by loving parents may lack determination. He deliberately sent a child, who wasn’t capable of living in close proximity to others without suffering severe pain, into a very crowded and public environment to see if she was tough enough. Whitney has many notations saying she surprised him with her abilities in the face of continual pain. From what I’ve read, in spite of numerous physical problems, she performs with her family, is extremely intelligent, and every bit as well trained as any GhostWalker. And he provided his own doctor for her care and designed her education, which her parents agreed to follow to the letter.”
Lily’s eyes glistened with tears for a moment. “I think he had her parents murdered when they objected to his sending her to Colombia. Jack Norton was in Colombia at the time. The parents were beginning to object to Whitney’s continual interference in their lives now that she was grown, and he wrote that they were in the way. Later he wrote: problem solved.”
Flame pressed her fingers against her mouth, her hand visibly shaking. “We have to find her, Lily. What does Whitney want from her?”
“He wants a baby. He wants the child to be a product of Jack Norton and Briony Jenkins. He’s spent millions maneuvering behind the scenes in order to bring them together. Right at this very moment, she’s in Kinshasa. She and her brothers were paid an exorbitant fee in order to get them to perform in a music festival there.”
There was another small silence. Logan broke it. “You’re saying Whitney was behind the senator’s plane going down in the Congo? That he tipped off General Ekabela that Ken Norton was leading a rescue mission?”
“Jack was supposed to lead the rescue, remember?” Lily corrected. “Ken stepped in when Jack couldn’t get back from Colombia in time. This was all about watching Jack perform. Was he worthy of donating the sperm? Jack is one of the more powerful GhostWalkers. We all know that. He has extreme talents, and I’m willing to bet Briony matches him in every way. Jack was the one meant to be captured. He was the one meant to escape and make his way to Kinshasa. Ken was used to draw him to the Congo, that’s why Ekabela didn’t have Ken killed immediately.”
“Kinshasa is no small place,” Kadan pointed out.
“Briony’s brother is a former Navy SEAL and served with Jack. They have a history. Jack saved his life. I’d say the setup is more than perfect. Jack is going to go straight to him if he’s escaped.”
Kadan shook his head. “I can’t see Ekabela letting him get away no matter how much money Whitney pays him. Ekabela has wanted Jack for a long time. He knows Jack is capable of taking him out and would if the order came down. The general is going to kill him.”
“Certainly Whitney expects him to try. Whitney created the ultimate weapons. What’s the use if he can’t see them perform?” Ryland asked.
Logan swore softly under his breath. “Can we get to Jack?”
“We’ve tried. We hit two different camps where he was reputed to have been held. They were long gone. In the last one, it looked as if a fight had taken place. There were bodies and a lot of blood, but no Ekabela and no Jack.”
“What about Briony Jenkins? Can you get to her?”
“We need a way to extract Jack. If we warn her… ”
“So you’re using her as bait.” Flame’s head snapped up, her eyes stormy. “Is that what we are to you, Kadan? Is that what she is? Something to use so you can get your GhostWalker back?”
Gator put a restraining hand on her arm, but she shrugged it off, glaring at the other man across the table.
Kadan shrugged with his usual calm. “We’re all GhostWalkers, Flame. Neither Norton nor Briony is expendable as far as I’m concerned. If Whitney has targeted Briony, he’ll eventually try to reacquire her. Jack Norton is her best bet for protection. I’m not willing to give up either one of them. Even if we did manage to send word to Kinshasa, and the chance of getting there before this is over is not good, why would she even believe us?”
“But she isn’t an anchor?” Ian asked.
Lily shook her head. “No, and it’s surprising that she’s managed to exist in the environment she has. My father has written copious notes about her ability to withstand pain and carry out her mission. In this case, performing with her family in front of so many people. She’s a strong telepath as are both Jack and Ken Norton. She has the same abilities that both of them have.”
“Which are?” Kadan prompted.
“Which brings us back to mosquitoes,” Lily said. “Mosquitoes can sense carbon dioxide and lactic acid up to one hundred feet away. When we breathe, humans, along with other mammals and even birds, give off these gases. The chemicals in sweat also attract mosquitoes.”
“Are you saying Jack and this woman, Briony, can do that as well? Scent people by breathing and sweat?” Ian asked.
“Yes. Absolutely they can. They were born with the same olfactory system in their noses, as we all were. Mosquitoes have receptors that allow them to use that system efficiently. Briony and Jack both have receptors.” A small smile escaped. “Although their receptors are not in antennae. Mosquitoes also have heat sensors, as do Briony and Jack. And last, but not least, mosquitoes have visual sensors.”
“I’m seeing a pattern here.” Ian flashed a grin around the room. “No wonder the man is good in the jungle. He can just home in on his targets.”
“Actually you’re right, he can. He also has the ability to change his skin color to match his surroundings.”
“Like a chameleon?” Ian asked.
“Contrary to popular belief, chameleons can’t display limitless colors and do not change colors in a camouflage response to their surroundings. Their skin changes in response to temperature, light, and mood,” Lily explained. “The hormones that control the melanin-containing cells can vary in concentration over the chameleon’s body, producing elaborate colored patterns. Some patterns are good camouflage, while other patterns are more showy stripes or spots in contrasting colors that signal the chameleon’s mood.”
“But chameleons don’t have the same skin we do,” Kadan pointed out. “So far, Whitney hasn’t introduced any alien DNA into us, has he?”
“A chameleon has four layers of skin. The outside layer has both red and yellow color cells. Inside that layer are two more layers, both reflecting light, one blue and one white. The inner layer is complicated and contains pigment granules called melonophore cells. The melonophore has dark brown pigment called melanin.”
“The same stuff that colors human skin brown or black?” Ian asked.
“Exactly the same stuff,” Lily acknowledged. “Humans, by the way, also have red and yellow color cells. So if you could independently and precisely control the hormone levels for each of the melanin-containing cells, you could create a wide variety of color patterns within the ranges allowed by multiple-color cell layers.”
“In a human? How could you do that?” Kadan asked.
“Through a distributed network of nano-computers associated with the melanin-containing cells: one such nano-computer.”
Ian shoved a hand through his red hair. “I hate it when you start talking like this. It makes me feel stupid.”
“Each nano-computer is a few hundred molecules in size, and its primary purpose is to regulate the hormone level of the melanin-containing cell with which it’s associated. It has one more function-something like a sperm cell, if injected into the bloodstream, it will find its way to a melanin-containing cell that currently doesn’t have a ‘nano-computer’ and latch on to it.”
Flame frowned. “So you’re saying the idea is to inject a zillion of these into the bloodstream, and they will sort themselves out into a distributed computing network, one nano-computer per melanin-containing cell? What controls them?”
“The nano-computers change the hormone level they are allowing-and hence the colors those color cells are displaying-when they are exposed to a magnetic field of a certain strength.”
Logan burst out with “Damn it, Lily, are you sure?”
She nodded. “Jack and Ken Norton have extensive files. They’re very strong telepaths as well as having many other talents on a lesser level. Both can use telekinesis. Psychokinesis, more commonly referred to as telekinesis, is the ability to move things or otherwise affect the property of things with the power of the mind. Of all psychic abilities, true telekinesis is the rarest-and the most difficult to control. I know because I have some small talent-nothing like theirs. And I believe Briony must have this talent as well. Not only did both men test strong in that area, they were enhanced even further. They’ve apparently had the ability to communicate telepathically from the time they were toddlers.”
“Let’s go back to the ability to change skin color into camouflage,” Logan said. “If they need a magnet to control the nano-computers, do they carry it? And if hormone levels trigger the capability, how can they keep from revealing their mood swings like the chameleon does?”
“Good question. They’re trained with biofeedback, and both men have amazing control. Dr. Whitney implanted an MRI-like device inside both of the Nortons. It radiates the magnetic pattern outwards to the surface of the body. The device responds to a mental signal the brothers first learned in biofeedback training, but because of their extensive talent, it has become second nature to them.”
