Predatory Game
Page 6
Jess pushed his hand through his hair and slapped the desk hard with the flat of his hand in frustration. “I know. I visited him in the hospital when he first came back.”
Few people know about the GhostWalkers, even in Washington. The Special Forces teams from every branch in the military had been tested for psychic abilities, and anyone who scored high had been given the opportunity to continue forward into the GhostWalker program. The soldiers were given specialized training before, during, and after the experiments, and the results had been incredible. Of course no one had known genetic experimentation had also taken place. Knowledge of the GhostWalkers was on a need-to-know basis, beyond security clearance. They were top-secret weapons sent out only when the circumstances were dire. But someone very high in the chain of command wanted them dead.
“Someone knew. Someone knew we volunteered to be psychically enhanced, and they have to know Peter Whitney carried the experiment even further. He has God knows how many women out there he experimented on as well.” Jess shook his head. “Someone knows, Max, and it isn’t the admiral.”
“Maybe Louise Charter, the admiral’s secretary. She’s been with him twenty years, and when we investigated her before, she came out clean, but let’s go there again and see if we missed anything.” Logan knew he sounded as reluctant as he felt. They’d looked at Louise thoroughly. Nothing had been missed and they both knew it.
“My gut says it isn’t the admiral,” Jess persisted.
Logan let out his breath. “All right. Then what are we doing here? We’re looking through every single report that ever had anything to do with the GhostWalkers, except that not a single mission was ever in a report. This paperwork is all bullshit. So tell me what we’re looking for, Jess.”
“Every GhostWalker volunteered to be psychically enhanced. At least the men. While it’s true we didn’t know about the genetic enhancement, my guess is, if we had, we’d all have gone for it. Someone wants us all dead, and what we’re doing is trying to find out who.”
“True,” Logan nodded his head, knowing Jess was thinking out loud. The man was brilliant, right up there with Kadan Montague, another GhostWalker and one considered a genius. If anyone could figure the mess out, it was Jess or Kadan.
As if reading his thoughts, Jess glanced at him. “Kadan is running point for Ryland’s team. He’s looking at their commander, General Rainer. He’s finding the same thing we are. The buck stops with his general, and he doesn’t believe it any more than I believe Admiral Henderson is betraying us. So what do we know for certain, Max? We have to go back to the beginning on this one if we’re going to unravel the mess and find our traitor.”
Logan shot him a faint grin. “We know for absolute certain that we were all as dumb as jackasses to agree, and that we’re all royally screwed. Well, with the sad exception of you, who can’t get your housekeeper to cooperate and give you one or two extras. That might change if you weren’t such a cheap son of a bitch.”
“I might throw you out in another minute.” Jess’s voice was mild.
“Actually she’s kind of cute,” Logan persisted. “And when she talks on the radio, man she sounds like sin. Maybe I’ll give it a try and see if she likes my type.”
“I’d have to shoot you,” Jess said. The walls expanded and contracted. Beneath his chair the floor shifted ever so slightly, and on the desk several objects moved. He took a deep breath and let it out.
Logan was joking. Teasing. The kind of bantering they always did back and forth, but for some reason, the mere thought of Logan hitting on Saber sent his gut twisting into hard knots.
Logan glanced around, leaned back in his chair, and laced his fingers behind his head. “You know you picked a bad time, Jess.”
Jess sighed, not bothering to pretend he didn’t know what Logan was talking about. Hell yeah, he’d picked the wrong time and the wrong woman. “Yeah, I’m very aware of that. Don’t worry, I have my priorities straight.”
“Do you? Because this could get ugly. If the wrong person gets wind of this investigation, they’ll come after you, my friend. They’ll kill you and her. And most likely they’ll do to both of you the kinds of things that were done to Ken, just to see what you know and who you told.”
Jess knew Logan was right. Worse, he knew he had put himself and maybe even his team members in jeopardy by not revealing that Saber was telepathic. Dr. Peter Whitney had experimented on young girls years earlier, and there was no doubt in his mind that Saber was one of these women. She could have other, much more dangerous, psychic gifts. Most of the GhostWalkers did. But he couldn’t give her up. It made no sense, but he couldn’t do it-not yet.
“You’ve got to tell me what’s going on, Jess,” Logan said, shifting in his chair, leaning forward. “We’ve been friends too long for you to shut me out.”
Jess nodded. “Give me a few days to sort through all this. We’re not even close to finding the traitor yet, so there’s no way we could have spooked anyone. Just let me figure things out.”
“Don’t wait too long,” Logan cautioned. “In our business, things go to hell very fast.” Idly, he picked up a folder sitting beneath a lamp on the desk and turned it over and over in his hands. Jess leaned forward to take it and immediately Logan flipped it open. “What is this?”
Jess held out his hand. “Nothing important.”
Logan inhaled sharply. “Don’t bullshit me. This is your medical file. Bionics?” He was silent a moment flipping through the thick pages. “Lily sent you this, didn’t she? For God’s sake, Jess, she’s Whitney’s daughter. We’ve already got some bastard trying to kill us all, we’ve had our brains opened wide and our DNA altered, isn’t that enough for you? Tell me you didn’t agree to do this.”
Jess remained silent.
“Bionics.” Logan murmured the word aloud. “Another experiment?”
Jess shrugged, trying to look casual. “The latest technology. Eric Lambert told me about it first when he was here checking on me. He said Lily Whitney has already advanced it.”
“And convinced you to be her guinea pig? You don’t think that what her father did to us was enough?” Logan took a breath. “Do you really trust her, Jess? I know she’s married to Ryland and he’s one of ours, but…”
“She lives in that house, knowing every minute of every day that Whitney has to be able to see and hear what she’s doing so she can keep track of him. She lives in hell, Logan. Yeah, I trust her. She’s helped every single GhostWalker in some way, from the exercises she teaches us to help shield our brains from outside disturbances, to making each of us financially independent. Without her, we wouldn’t have half the data on Whitney that we have. She uses the computers to spy on him.”
“How do you know she’s not a double agent?”
Jess shook his head. “We’re all getting so paranoid. Look at what we’re doing to the admiral. We’ve known the old man for years, but we’re looking into every aspect of his life. Now you don’t think we can trust Lily? If there’s one person here who has suffered the most, who has given up everything, it’s her. She knows he can find her, maybe even get to her, but she sticks herself out there so we can keep track of him. Without those computers we’re dead in the water. He’ll go under and we’ll never find him.”
“You’re betting your life on her,” Logan growled. “She’s very much like her father.”
“That isn’t fair. She’s brilliant like her father, otherwise she’s nothing like him.” He pushed aside the little voice in his head reminding him of the iguana and lizard DNA as well as the adult stem cell regeneration drug he’d been administered. It would sound far too close to Lily’s father’s experiments.
It was Peter Whitney, a billionaire with an extraordinary mind, who had managed to talk them all into his psychic experiments, not telling them-or anyone else-that it wasn’t the first time he’d tried it on human beings. He had first experimented on orphans, infants, small children he’d had complete power over-including Lily, the child he’d adopted. As time went on they discovered he had also genetically altered them all. And he had continued his experiments, so no one knew how many women or men had been affected. Lily was trying to find out.
“I worked with her a lot while I was in the hospital recouping,” Jess admitted. “She’s committed to helping the GhostWalkers, all of them. She wants to find the other women and track down any other teams he may have worked on, so they can eventually live semi-normal lives.”
“None of us are ever going to be able to do that,” Logan said. “You know it as well as I do. And letting her experiment on you with bionics…”
“What do I have to lose?”
“Your life.”
“You just said none of us were ever going to have one,” Jess pointed out. “In any case, it’s too late. I’ve committed to the program.”
There was a long silence. Logan leapt out of his chair and paced across the room, swearing under his breath.
“It’s that woman upstairs, isn’t it, Jess? She’s making you crazy, man.” Logan turned to face Jess. “I’m not going to let this happen. I mean it. We’ve been friends too long. If she doesn’t want you because you’re in a chair…”
“That’s not it and you know it. I wanted to try this. Once Eric mentioned the bionics program, I studied it, and when I took it to Lily, she asked me to let her see if she could improve things a little. With my enhancements, she wanted to add a few things that might work better for me.” Things that would regenerate cells so his legs would actually work, things like iguana DNA and cells from his bone marrow. Who really knew what was in that bone marrow, since Peter Whitney had already added to the strange DNA that was now his?
“It’s still an experiment.”
“I didn’t walk into it blind. You know me better than that. I won’t stop until I find out who the mole is, and I’m going to walk again.”
Logan shook his head. “You’re not giving me much choice here, Jess.”
“I’m aware of that. Let’s get back to work. We’ve got a couple of hours to go through the rest of these reports. Maybe something will jump out at us.”
Logan took another look at the file on bionics and then tossed it on the desk with another shake of his head. “Stubborn son of a bitch.”
“You don’t know the half of it.” Jess flashed a small grin and went back to work.
S ubject Jess Calhoun. Called in another GhostWalker tonight, Logan Maxwell. Calhoun is definitely still working with the SEAL GhostWalker team. At this time I have no further data on what he might be up to. Could not get the opportunity to plant the devices, as the virus has not reacted as we’d hoped. Wynter’s system is quite resistant. Will try again and up the dose. Need your input and help with finding the security flaws. So far, cannot penetrate without detection. Please advise. Both subjects appear to have the same vulnerability. If their adversary is not enhanced, neither appears to have any alarm or radar going off. Your observations were correct, and I believe you should take steps to correct that in any future models.
The man clicked off his small recorder and leaned back against the plush leather seat as he switched on the radio. Immediately the car was flooded with the voice of the Night Siren. Sensuous. Like silk sheets. He felt it penetrate right through him, stroking his skin and hardening his groin. He adjusted his legs and closed his eyes, listening, knowing she was talking to him. He could feel her fingers, her tongue and mouth. So erotic. So much promise.
Few people know about the GhostWalkers, even in Washington. The Special Forces teams from every branch in the military had been tested for psychic abilities, and anyone who scored high had been given the opportunity to continue forward into the GhostWalker program. The soldiers were given specialized training before, during, and after the experiments, and the results had been incredible. Of course no one had known genetic experimentation had also taken place. Knowledge of the GhostWalkers was on a need-to-know basis, beyond security clearance. They were top-secret weapons sent out only when the circumstances were dire. But someone very high in the chain of command wanted them dead.
“Someone knew. Someone knew we volunteered to be psychically enhanced, and they have to know Peter Whitney carried the experiment even further. He has God knows how many women out there he experimented on as well.” Jess shook his head. “Someone knows, Max, and it isn’t the admiral.”
“Maybe Louise Charter, the admiral’s secretary. She’s been with him twenty years, and when we investigated her before, she came out clean, but let’s go there again and see if we missed anything.” Logan knew he sounded as reluctant as he felt. They’d looked at Louise thoroughly. Nothing had been missed and they both knew it.
“My gut says it isn’t the admiral,” Jess persisted.
Logan let out his breath. “All right. Then what are we doing here? We’re looking through every single report that ever had anything to do with the GhostWalkers, except that not a single mission was ever in a report. This paperwork is all bullshit. So tell me what we’re looking for, Jess.”
“Every GhostWalker volunteered to be psychically enhanced. At least the men. While it’s true we didn’t know about the genetic enhancement, my guess is, if we had, we’d all have gone for it. Someone wants us all dead, and what we’re doing is trying to find out who.”
“True,” Logan nodded his head, knowing Jess was thinking out loud. The man was brilliant, right up there with Kadan Montague, another GhostWalker and one considered a genius. If anyone could figure the mess out, it was Jess or Kadan.
As if reading his thoughts, Jess glanced at him. “Kadan is running point for Ryland’s team. He’s looking at their commander, General Rainer. He’s finding the same thing we are. The buck stops with his general, and he doesn’t believe it any more than I believe Admiral Henderson is betraying us. So what do we know for certain, Max? We have to go back to the beginning on this one if we’re going to unravel the mess and find our traitor.”
Logan shot him a faint grin. “We know for absolute certain that we were all as dumb as jackasses to agree, and that we’re all royally screwed. Well, with the sad exception of you, who can’t get your housekeeper to cooperate and give you one or two extras. That might change if you weren’t such a cheap son of a bitch.”
“I might throw you out in another minute.” Jess’s voice was mild.
“Actually she’s kind of cute,” Logan persisted. “And when she talks on the radio, man she sounds like sin. Maybe I’ll give it a try and see if she likes my type.”
“I’d have to shoot you,” Jess said. The walls expanded and contracted. Beneath his chair the floor shifted ever so slightly, and on the desk several objects moved. He took a deep breath and let it out.
Logan was joking. Teasing. The kind of bantering they always did back and forth, but for some reason, the mere thought of Logan hitting on Saber sent his gut twisting into hard knots.
Logan glanced around, leaned back in his chair, and laced his fingers behind his head. “You know you picked a bad time, Jess.”
Jess sighed, not bothering to pretend he didn’t know what Logan was talking about. Hell yeah, he’d picked the wrong time and the wrong woman. “Yeah, I’m very aware of that. Don’t worry, I have my priorities straight.”
“Do you? Because this could get ugly. If the wrong person gets wind of this investigation, they’ll come after you, my friend. They’ll kill you and her. And most likely they’ll do to both of you the kinds of things that were done to Ken, just to see what you know and who you told.”
Jess knew Logan was right. Worse, he knew he had put himself and maybe even his team members in jeopardy by not revealing that Saber was telepathic. Dr. Peter Whitney had experimented on young girls years earlier, and there was no doubt in his mind that Saber was one of these women. She could have other, much more dangerous, psychic gifts. Most of the GhostWalkers did. But he couldn’t give her up. It made no sense, but he couldn’t do it-not yet.
“You’ve got to tell me what’s going on, Jess,” Logan said, shifting in his chair, leaning forward. “We’ve been friends too long for you to shut me out.”
Jess nodded. “Give me a few days to sort through all this. We’re not even close to finding the traitor yet, so there’s no way we could have spooked anyone. Just let me figure things out.”
“Don’t wait too long,” Logan cautioned. “In our business, things go to hell very fast.” Idly, he picked up a folder sitting beneath a lamp on the desk and turned it over and over in his hands. Jess leaned forward to take it and immediately Logan flipped it open. “What is this?”
Jess held out his hand. “Nothing important.”
Logan inhaled sharply. “Don’t bullshit me. This is your medical file. Bionics?” He was silent a moment flipping through the thick pages. “Lily sent you this, didn’t she? For God’s sake, Jess, she’s Whitney’s daughter. We’ve already got some bastard trying to kill us all, we’ve had our brains opened wide and our DNA altered, isn’t that enough for you? Tell me you didn’t agree to do this.”
Jess remained silent.
“Bionics.” Logan murmured the word aloud. “Another experiment?”
Jess shrugged, trying to look casual. “The latest technology. Eric Lambert told me about it first when he was here checking on me. He said Lily Whitney has already advanced it.”
“And convinced you to be her guinea pig? You don’t think that what her father did to us was enough?” Logan took a breath. “Do you really trust her, Jess? I know she’s married to Ryland and he’s one of ours, but…”
“She lives in that house, knowing every minute of every day that Whitney has to be able to see and hear what she’s doing so she can keep track of him. She lives in hell, Logan. Yeah, I trust her. She’s helped every single GhostWalker in some way, from the exercises she teaches us to help shield our brains from outside disturbances, to making each of us financially independent. Without her, we wouldn’t have half the data on Whitney that we have. She uses the computers to spy on him.”
“How do you know she’s not a double agent?”
Jess shook his head. “We’re all getting so paranoid. Look at what we’re doing to the admiral. We’ve known the old man for years, but we’re looking into every aspect of his life. Now you don’t think we can trust Lily? If there’s one person here who has suffered the most, who has given up everything, it’s her. She knows he can find her, maybe even get to her, but she sticks herself out there so we can keep track of him. Without those computers we’re dead in the water. He’ll go under and we’ll never find him.”
“You’re betting your life on her,” Logan growled. “She’s very much like her father.”
“That isn’t fair. She’s brilliant like her father, otherwise she’s nothing like him.” He pushed aside the little voice in his head reminding him of the iguana and lizard DNA as well as the adult stem cell regeneration drug he’d been administered. It would sound far too close to Lily’s father’s experiments.
It was Peter Whitney, a billionaire with an extraordinary mind, who had managed to talk them all into his psychic experiments, not telling them-or anyone else-that it wasn’t the first time he’d tried it on human beings. He had first experimented on orphans, infants, small children he’d had complete power over-including Lily, the child he’d adopted. As time went on they discovered he had also genetically altered them all. And he had continued his experiments, so no one knew how many women or men had been affected. Lily was trying to find out.
“I worked with her a lot while I was in the hospital recouping,” Jess admitted. “She’s committed to helping the GhostWalkers, all of them. She wants to find the other women and track down any other teams he may have worked on, so they can eventually live semi-normal lives.”
“None of us are ever going to be able to do that,” Logan said. “You know it as well as I do. And letting her experiment on you with bionics…”
“What do I have to lose?”
“Your life.”
“You just said none of us were ever going to have one,” Jess pointed out. “In any case, it’s too late. I’ve committed to the program.”
There was a long silence. Logan leapt out of his chair and paced across the room, swearing under his breath.
“It’s that woman upstairs, isn’t it, Jess? She’s making you crazy, man.” Logan turned to face Jess. “I’m not going to let this happen. I mean it. We’ve been friends too long. If she doesn’t want you because you’re in a chair…”
“That’s not it and you know it. I wanted to try this. Once Eric mentioned the bionics program, I studied it, and when I took it to Lily, she asked me to let her see if she could improve things a little. With my enhancements, she wanted to add a few things that might work better for me.” Things that would regenerate cells so his legs would actually work, things like iguana DNA and cells from his bone marrow. Who really knew what was in that bone marrow, since Peter Whitney had already added to the strange DNA that was now his?
“It’s still an experiment.”
“I didn’t walk into it blind. You know me better than that. I won’t stop until I find out who the mole is, and I’m going to walk again.”
Logan shook his head. “You’re not giving me much choice here, Jess.”
“I’m aware of that. Let’s get back to work. We’ve got a couple of hours to go through the rest of these reports. Maybe something will jump out at us.”
Logan took another look at the file on bionics and then tossed it on the desk with another shake of his head. “Stubborn son of a bitch.”
“You don’t know the half of it.” Jess flashed a small grin and went back to work.
S ubject Jess Calhoun. Called in another GhostWalker tonight, Logan Maxwell. Calhoun is definitely still working with the SEAL GhostWalker team. At this time I have no further data on what he might be up to. Could not get the opportunity to plant the devices, as the virus has not reacted as we’d hoped. Wynter’s system is quite resistant. Will try again and up the dose. Need your input and help with finding the security flaws. So far, cannot penetrate without detection. Please advise. Both subjects appear to have the same vulnerability. If their adversary is not enhanced, neither appears to have any alarm or radar going off. Your observations were correct, and I believe you should take steps to correct that in any future models.
The man clicked off his small recorder and leaned back against the plush leather seat as he switched on the radio. Immediately the car was flooded with the voice of the Night Siren. Sensuous. Like silk sheets. He felt it penetrate right through him, stroking his skin and hardening his groin. He adjusted his legs and closed his eyes, listening, knowing she was talking to him. He could feel her fingers, her tongue and mouth. So erotic. So much promise.
