Predatory Game

CHAPTER 10

Saber stood very still in the middle of the bathroom, her body trembling. The room was large, with cooling tiles and wide, open doorways. Jess could roll his chair into the shower. The Jacuzzi tub was huge and she thought about sitting in it and letting herself cry. Maybe she’d brought this on herself with her voice. She’d deliberately used her voice, tried to summon her watcher from the shadows, and maybe she’d succeeded.

She paced for a while and then tried sitting. Eventually the cleaners left along with most of the GhostWalkers. Only Logan remained, and he went into the office to talk to Jess. They left the door slightly open. She was fairly certain Jess wanted to catch her before she went upstairs, but she had no intention of going up. She couldn’t stay in that room. Instead, she crept past the office and into the kitchen.

The room smelled comforting and spicy. The scent made her feel a little better. She made a cup of tea, but couldn’t sit still, shaken and uneasy that someone had managed to get into the house, so close to her-to Jess. The clothes weren’t the only thing slashed to ribbons. She’d spotted the picture of Jess she had on her bedside table, glass shattered, frame smashed, and the photograph ripped up.

A prickle of awareness slid beneath her skin, into her mind. She took a breath and let it out. Someone was watching the house. Was it the GhostWalker team? Were they keeping tabs on her? Protecting Jess? She stayed quiet, stilling her mind, trying to feel friend or foe.

The unease that would not quiet gave her the answer: that was no friendly out there that she was picking up. She hurried up the stairs, keeping her steps quiet. If she was lucky Jess would think she’d fallen asleep and he’d work with Logan for a while. The GhostWalkers had more than likely interrogated the prisoners and they’d be feeding information to Jess in the office. That should buy her the time she needed.

In her bathroom, Saber scrubbed her face clean, removing the faint lines along her eyes and around her mouth. Adding color to her skin tone aged her by a couple of years, nothing dramatic, and the eye makeup took away the lost waif look she always had without it. She looked at herself in the mirror and her heart squeezed down hard, her lips trembling as the picture blurred into memories she didn’t want to ever think about.

Such a beautiful child, he had said, his hand stroking her cheek while she’d looked up at him. Such a beautiful child and so lethal, so deadly, one of my greatest achievements. Just sit there and play the game with little Thorn. Wrap your hand around her ankle and feel her pulse. There’s a girl. You feel it don’t you? Her heart, tapping away, that steady rhythm. Just like the puppy. Keep your touch light. In order to win, they can’t know you are there.

But the puppy died. I didn’t mean it. It was an accident. Tears welled up before she could stop them.

At once he frowned, looking severe. What did I tell you about crying? Do you want to go back into the dark? In the ground where bad girls belong?

She struggled to hold back the tears, shaking her head, suddenly very afraid. She reached for Thorn’s ankle. The little girl was sound asleep, her hair sweeping across the pillow, so white it looked like silk from a corncob. She was only about three, and at eight, Saber felt very motherly toward her. Her own heart beat too fast in anticipation. She had to be careful, keep Thorn from any danger. Stay in control. The doctor wanted her to show control. She moistened her lips and absorbed the rhythm of Thorn’s body into her own.

Saber forced her body to relax, to simply take in the sound and feel of that small little heart. She kept her touch light, so light Thorn wouldn’t wake up. The thump was so tiny but strong. She knew the exact pathways in Thorn’s body, the veins and arteries and neural pathways, every line that fed or was fed by that single organ.

She breathed for both of them, air rushing in and out of their lungs. For a moment she experienced a strange euphoria, as if they were both the same person, one in the same skin, heart and minds totally in tune. And then she introduced the small irregular beat. A thud. Wait. Another thud.

Thorn stirred, pain rippling across her face. Her eyes fluttered open and she looked directly into Saber’s eyes. Knowledge was there. Understanding. Thorn had always been so intelligent, far beyond what Whitney ever guessed-or maybe he did-and maybe he was afraid of her.

Saber tore her hand from Thorn’s ankle. “I did it. And I didn’t mess up this time.” She kept her voice triumphant, with no hint of defiance. But she wasn’t touching Thorn again. There would be no second experiment because she was beginning to suspect the doctor would have been happy if she’d killed Thorn. He’d been happy when the puppy had died. She’d seen that in his eyes even when he looked at her sternly.

There was a long silence. She kept her head bowed. Finally he dropped his hand on top of her head. “Good job, Winter. You’re a very good girl.”

Saber blinked to bring her face in the mirror back in focus. She was now white and ravaged from the memory. Thorn. She hadn’t let herself think about Thorn or her sacrifices for years, but if there was one girl, one woman, who could outsmart Whitney, it was Thorn. “Be alive,” she said aloud. “Stay alive.”

She stared at herself, looking for flaws. Her face was smooth and unlined, beautiful soft skin and very large eyes. She looked so young with her too-slim body and her little girl face. No one would ever suspect her of anything deadly. She straightened her shoulders and firmed her mouth. She had skills and she would use them to protect Jess. Whoever wanted him dead was going to have to contend with her. If it was Whitney, well, she’d always suspected he’d find her someday, and she wasn’t about to allow him to hurt or kill Jess. If it was some nutcase fixated on her voice, she was going to remove the threat to Jess once and for all.

Pushing aside the dresser, she crouched low to remove the small grill from the wall. The pipe curved back and she had to reach deep to pull her field kit out. Opening the leather case, she surveyed her options. As she studied the various choices, she sleeked back her hair using a stiff gel and then pulled a skull cap tight over it. She stripped with quick efficiency and dragged on a bodysuit so thin and tight it seemed a second skin. The suit acted as a sealant, keeping cells from being left behind when she took out a target. Her clothes were next, very nondescript, something a teen might wear. She pulled jeans and a T-shirt over the suit.

She took no weapons, but she coated her hands with a solution to fill in all the lines of her palms and fingers, making them perfectly smooth, so she left behind no prints or cells, but could still make skin-to-skin contact. It was a miracle invention, one of Whitney’s finest, and yet he hadn’t turned it over to the government. The only covert use for it seemed to be his own. Originally she’d stolen several bottles with the idea that she might send it anonymously to a research center, hoping they’d duplicate it, but it was impossible to know which facilities he was associated with.

Saber wasn’t an anchor, so death, particularly a brutal one, had debilitating repercussions on her. She couldn’t afford to pass out on the job, so she added a small vial of liquid to her armament. If she killed again tonight, she’d just have to take the drug and hope it held until she could be alone somewhere safe.

She had to get through Jess’s security to the outside without him becoming aware that she was gone. He was in his office with his friend Logan, looking at something he didn’t want her to see. She’d have to spot his GhostWalkers, the ones she was certain were out there, guarding the house and Jess. They couldn’t see her leaving or returning.

She pushed open the attic door and leapt, catching the frame and swinging up. She carefully closed the door behind her, making certain it sat perfectly so it appeared undisturbed. She’d tested this route a hundred times, so she could make her way in the dark through the space to the dormer where the ventilation grill was. She followed the heating duct, avoiding a misstep as well as insulation, keeping herself as light as possible as she counted the steps to the small opening.

The louvered air vent was a twelve-inch square. She had already prepared the grill, just in case, loosening all the screws with the exception of one. She had her emergency pack stashed there along with her tools. Quickly she took out the last tight screw and simply waited there in the dark, holding the louvers while she felt the night.

There was someone on the roof. Not the enemy-at least not Jess’s enemy. Ken Norton lay up there with a rifle in his hands. Mari had to be close. Again, Saber ignored the oppressive darkness and the way it made her feel until she found Mari’s position. There was no sound or movement, neither GhostWalker gave themselves away; instead it was more of a leap in the energy, as if power was alive and lay on the rooftop.

The dormer was difficult to see from the roof itself, and neither GhostWalker had any reason to be looking as long as she moved at a snail’s pace and didn’t draw their attention. Saber carefully pulled the grill inside, taking care not to scrape it against the frame. Now came the tricky part. She had to slip through the small space to the outside without getting caught.

Movement always drew the eye and GhostWalkers had an unerring sixth sense. With excruciating patience, Saber slipped out of the attic into the open air. When she was dangling just a foot above the steeper roofline, she reached in with one hand and pulled the louvers back in position. Only a very sharp eye would spot that the air vent was slightly crooked. She let go and dropped into a crouch, her small feet making no noise as she landed.

She went still once more and waited, knowing those first few moments were the most crucial. The special clothing from her field pack would reflect her surroundings so that she appeared to fade into them. It was one small trick out of many that helped to make her invisible. She kept her energy as low as possible, changing her biorhythm so that she would give very little away to alert Ken and Mari to another’s presence.

She knew the first moment they both became suspicious. Their energy spiked as adrenaline rushed. She continued to stay still, to breathe evenly and keep her heart slow and steady, even as she automatically stretched out her rhythm to include them. She could find a heartbeat in close proximity and work with it, even without touch, but it wasn’t as easy or accurate. She couldn’t disrupt the rhythm, but she could soothe and calm.

She had previously touched both individuals and already committed their rhythms to memory. Each person’s bioelectric activity was unique even in a reversal phase. Saber had a finely honed electrical-magnetic pulse when she wanted to tap into the field her body generated. It was so strong, she had to keep her biorhythm very low indoors and around others to keep from disrupting sensitive equipment, both human and man-made.

The wave was easy enough to disrupt if she was touching her target, but she could still send pulses to coax the rhythm in a direction she wanted it to go. The key was keeping her touch so light it appeared to be natural. She couldn’t allow energy to rise around her, giving her presence away to the enhanced psychic soldier.

She waited until both Ken and Mari settled back into their normal rhythms, and then she began to make her way over the roof, threading the needle between the two GhostWalkers. She had trained against enhanced soldiers for years, moving through secured areas where cameras, motion detectors, and just about every technologic advance in security had been used against her. The last line of defense had been dogs and enhanced soldiers under orders to shoot to kill.

She didn’t flinch as she eased past Mari, staying downwind, keeping her rhythm low so as not to set off natural alarms. She was so close she could have reached out and touched Mari’s leg as she slipped by. She eased over the edge of the roof to the attached garage. If she could have chosen a different way she would have, but it was the only safe way down without risking noise. Even soft sound carried at night and out where Jess’s house was located, there was little traffic and no other houses.

She had to get off the roof as soon as possible. Ken prowled the area, quartering every inch repeatedly. He might not sense her, but his radar was extremely sensitive and either he was the most thorough guard in the world, or he was edgier than she’d like. She barely made it over the gutters before he came up on her. Her heart nearly stopped beating.

The surge of adrenaline was almost her undoing. She fought to control her body’s reaction as she dangled in the air. The tip of Ken’s shoe touched her fingers as he stood, surveying the wooded area across from the Calhoun estate. She hung directly under him, her body blending in with the shadows of the garage, and she prayed Mari wasn’t looking too closely at her husband.

Only when he moved to the other side did she allow herself a small breath of relief as she dropped to the ground. She landed in a crouch, staying low and still, while she “felt” the night around her. Navigating through enemy lines without detection required infinite patience, and over the years, Saber had become good at waiting.

She stretched out onto the open ground and crossed with painstaking slowness, like a snail, crawling with her elbows and toes until she came to the high fence. She crouched at its highest point, counting slowly in her head. This was where she’d be most vulnerable, although because she’d chosen the least likely point of entry, the chances were very low that someone would be focusing attention there at that precise moment. Luck sometimes really was the downfall of a great assassin.

The highest point of the fence was on the most open ground. Few would attempt entry there because they could be seen easily and the fence was difficult to climb. She had no intention of doing so. Behind the low-lying shrubs, she lay in the dirt and painstakingly dug a small depression. Using enhanced strength, she bent the bottom of the fence just a few inches so she could wiggle through. She had to flatten her body as best she could, all the while moving at a snail’s pace so as not to draw Ken’s or Mari’s eye. It would be easy enough to shove the dirt back in place and straighten the few inches of fencing when she returned, and no one would ever suspect she had left the estate.

Once outside the fence, she slipped into the woods and made her way in silence. There was little moonlight, which helped. The area was overgrown with bushes and berries and it would be much more difficult to be spotted.

She let her own rhythm slip away from her mind, concentrating on finding another’s. Somewhere out there someone was watching Jess’s house and they were emitting energy. In that energy she felt a threat. Her psychic abilities were strong when it came to reading energy and auras. She couldn’t read thoughts the way some of the other women had been able to do through touch, but she could feel danger miles away. As she made her way through the woods, the impression of a threat increased significantly.

Saber had to factor in the chance that Ken or Mari would become aware of the intruder and come to investigate, and that meant she needed to be on the alert every moment. She smelled cigarette smoke and slowed her pace, going low to the ground as she advanced on the car hidden in the bushes just off a narrow dirt road.

The vehicle was parked behind several very bushy plants. It was impossible to see from the road, and certainly not from Jess’s house, which meant that whoever was watching couldn’t be in the car. Saber stayed still, waiting for a sound, anything, to tell her where the watcher was positioned.

The breeze shifted slightly. She wrinkled her nose. Cigarette smoke and perfume-and she recognized the perfume. Chaleen.

Saber stayed still, yards from the vehicle, breathing deep to keep her body relaxed and her energy output low. The idea that Jess’s former girlfriend was spying on him infuriated her, but she couldn’t afford to blow her cover with a surge of adrenaline that would bring both Ken and Mari running.

Chaleen was standing on a large rock beside a tree. She was close enough that at first glance one might mistake her for part of the foliage. She wore a dark navy suit and, incredibly, high heels. Her shoes looked absurd there in the woods. She held a pair of binoculars up to her eyes and was studying Jess’s home, a faint frown on her face.

With a little sigh of impatience, she dropped the binoculars, allowing them to hang by the strap around her neck, and stepped off the rock, careful not to ruin her heels. Snapping open her cell phone, she walked toward the more open area of the dirt road in an attempt to pick up a signal. All the while, she continued watching the house.

As she put the phone to her ear, her jacket parted, revealing the shoulder holster and gun beneath her arm. She was wearing slim trousers, and when she took a step, the material pulled just enough to give her hold-out gun away as well. Saber would have bet she had another strapped to the back of her waist, right where the jacket was loose enough to conceal it.

Chaleen began to pace while she talked into the phone, her agitation clear. The energy build-up around her was doubling. Ken and Mari would feel the threat and come looking. It was now or never.

“I’m telling you, we’ll never learn anything this way. It’s impossible. Do you think Jess is just going to spill his guts to an old girlfriend? One who betrayed him? He’s a smart man. You continually underestimate him.”

Saber crawled through the brush, stalking the enemy. Chaleen had already betrayed Jess once. She wasn’t going to get an opportunity to do it twice. Saber moved her body within striking distance, placing herself in Chaleen’s path. She needed Chaleen to take another step and stop. Already Saber began to tune her body’s rhythm to her adversary’s. The heart, the ebb and flow of blood, the steady pulse-those things became her world. A symphony of sound, the music playing inside of her, etching notes onto her brain where she could clearly see the important pattern and how best to gently interrupt it.

Chaleen sighed and took another step, once more stopping to maintain the weak signal. “Does it matter? He has a girlfriend. Seduction didn’t work before and it isn’t going to work now. Let me tell you something. Not all men can be seduced into betraying their country. You should have learned that when he was captured and tortured. He wouldn’t give up the people he was protecting, not even when he lost his legs. No. Absolutely not. Yes, I believe Jess Calhoun is an operative, absolutely, but he isn’t one you can use. Accept it and move on, damn it.”

Saber curled her palm around Chaleen’s ankle without actually touching it. She could feel the heat now. The life. The blood moving and the electricity as the commands of the brain were carried out. With infinite patience she placed the tips of her fingers over the pulse. Light. So light as to be nonexistent.

Saber closed her eyes and absorbed the rhythm, the steady beat and the flow of blood through arteries and veins. She let out her breath at the exact moment that Chaleen did, allowing air to rush through her lungs. For a moment she experienced that strange euphoria that came with blending body rhythms. Sharing the same skin, the same breath, the same heartbeat was unique and incredible, an indescribable feeling. The most difficult moment came with that connection. She couldn’t react to the exhilaration. She had to keep that same steady beat so that they were one being.

“I did go see him, but there was no chance to get into his office. I’ve observed members of his team here, but they’re friends of his.”

Although her concentration was on Chaleen, Saber’s warning system began to shriek at her. There was no sound. GhostWalkers rarely gave themselves away with noise, but the energy coming toward her was very aggressive and it was coming fast. Time was running out. It was now or never.

Saber introduced the smallest blip in the steady rhythm. Chaleen reacted by pressing her hand to her chest.

“Look, I’m telling you this is a waste of time. Jess Calhoun is a patriot and he’s given most of his life to his country. I’ll be damned if I’m a party to any of this. We’re supposed to be on the same side, Karl.”

Saber closed her eyes, allowing her breath to escape. Chaleen might be an operative for someone, but she wasn’t trying to kill Jess. She wasn’t enhanced and there was no way Saber could confirm a connection to Whitney. Slowly, with tremendous care, she lifted her fingers from Chaleen’s ankle. The heart wouldn’t seize, would remain beating normally, and Chaleen would never know just how close to death she’d been.

“I suggest you put your hands where I can see them,” Ken Norton said, his voice low, but carrying a threat that sent a shiver down Saber’s spine.

Chaleen snapped the cell phone closed and whirled around to face the GhostWalker, nearly stepping on Saber. “Don’t point that gun at me. You know who I am and who I work for.”

Saber inched her way back into thick brush. If Ken was here, Mari would be covering his back, and that left the way open to get back inside the house.

“I thought the CIA had stopped harassing Jess just about the time he lost his legs. Isn’t that when you left him because he wasn’t of use to you?”

“He never was of use to me.”

“No, I’m betting he wasn’t one for pillow talk. Go away, Chaleen.”

“Kiss my ass, Norton,” Chaleen said.

Saber crawled as quickly as she could through the brush until she was in heavier woods. She ran, staying to the shadows, wishing she could hear more of the conversation but knowing eventually Jess would come looking for her.

It took less than a third of the time to make her way back, as she knew the GhostWalkers were occupied with Chaleen. She made certain she stayed small and blended into the night so that she didn’t draw Mari’s eye. Keeping her energy low, even as she ran, kept the guards’ sixth sense from tripping.

Saber leapt onto the garage roof, used it to springboard onto the house roof, and crawled to the dormer. It was a little trickier making the jump and catching the ledge, removing the louvers one-handed, but she had practiced, and she managed to make it into the attic before Ken returned.

Breathing a sigh of relief that she hadn’t had to kill Chaleen, Saber made her way back to her sitting room and hastily changed.

“You’re looking very pregnant, Lily,” Jess greeted, glancing up at the video picture of Dr. Lily Whitney-Miller, daughter of Peter Whitney, the man who had begun the psychic experiments.

Lily sat perched in a chair, her face serious and pale, her eyes wide with concern. “I’m due in a couple of weeks, Jess. And I’m not certain we’ll be able to stay here after that, which means we’ll lose what little advantage we have. It isn’t safe.”

“I understand.”

And he did. She lived in the house Peter Whitney had built, complete with secret labs and eighty rooms and underground tunnels. The sophisticated equipment inside was his brainchild and he had a back door into it all, so he could review everything his daughter did. Unbeknownst to Peter Whitney, Lily had turned the tables on him and had found a way to tap into his computers, so in effect, they were watching each other.

Lily basically lived in a fishbowl where her father could monitor her at will, but she could feed him whatever data the GhostWalkers wanted her to while they tried to track him down. Once her baby was born, she would never feel as if the child was safe unless they moved to another location where Whitney wouldn’t be able to kidnap him and use him for his experiments.

“I copied a file on a female child called Winter from my father’s computer and made a hard copy for you. In one of his entries a year or so ago, he noted she had changed the spelling of her name from Winter to Wynter, so I have no doubt your Saber is this girl. After reading this file, Jess, I just can’t risk it.”

Jess swallowed hard as he stared at the photographs spilling across his desk. His throat flooded with tears. “My God. She was a baby. He trained her to assassinate and used her before she was even grown.”

Lily’s image reflected her own horror. “It’s worse than that, Jess. He’s got a vision now of a different world, one where he gets rid of birth defects and makes humans into superior beings. He calls it a superior soldier, but he wants an elite force of genius, psychic, and genetically superior humans. He’s a megalomaniac and so fanatical he’s lost sight of any reality. I accessed the files of one of the children he used for Winter to experiment on-her name is Thorn and he thought her of no consequence because she didn’t show any promise for his ultimate plan. It looks as if he still considers her expendable.”

“Now we know what happens to the girls who don’t meet his standards. They’re on the other end of the experiments.”

Lily didn’t bother to hide her tears. “I don’t know how you’re going to stop him, Jess. I really don’t. He’s a multibillionaire and has research facilities all over the world. He has access to schools and labs and hospitals. He has so many friends in various governments, and the truth is, no matter how they might condemn him publicly, they want him to continue. What he gives them, no one else can.”

“That’s bullshit, Lily.”

“I wish it was. He’s my father, but he needs to be destroyed. He’s gone past saving doing this.” She rubbed her temples, her face lined and worn. There were dark circles under her eyes. “Somewhere he made the descent from greatness to madness. He’s completely insane to do this.”

“I’m sorry, Lily,” Jess said, meaning it. Lily had suffered enough. He could feel it radiating from her every time she was close to him.

“A child assassin, Jess, trained from the time she was a toddler. She could slip into a room, kill with a touch of her hand, and no one would ever even know it was murder. A heart attack. There is not a single pinprick on the body. She’s a perfect killing machine. What government wouldn’t give their right arm to have her? Logan gave me the picture you sent. Don’t worry, he hand-delivered it, and I’ve since destroyed it, but she’s enhancing her looks to make herself look older.”

“I can see that.”

“She was trained primarily for covert work. A nice little school where she learned everything needed to slip in and out of any society, any culture, without leaving a trace. She blends. That’s one of her greatest strengths. She becomes whatever is needed to get the job done. She’s lethal, Jess. One touch. She can kill with a touch.”

“I get that, Lily.” This wasn’t Lily’s fault. He had to keep reminding himself he was just pissed off and wanted a target. It couldn’t be Lily. She’d given too much of herself to helping the GhostWalkers, but damn it, he didn’t want to hear her talking as though Saber wasn’t salvageable. They were all killers. Every last one of them.

“He’s been tracking her through her radio station jobs. They’re watching her, trying to determine if by being out of the compound and away from training she’s losing her skills. But more importantly, Jess, they orchestrated her meeting you.”

He sighed and raked his hand through his hair. “Then he did arrange the car accident that killed my crew.” And his sister’s fiancé. How was he ever going to look Patsy in the eye again? And if David’s car had been shoved over the cliff, was Patsy’s accident an attempt to kill her? If so, why?

“Yes.” Lily shook her head. “I’m so sorry, Jess. It’s like a game of chess to him. We’re all pieces on his board and he moves us around to suit him.”

Jess quickly placed a call to the security force to put guards on his sister before spreading the photographs of Saber’s childhood across his desk in a surge of shimmering rage. Even the air rippled, the walls breathing as if trying to calm him. “I see his idea of intellectual amusement. Look at the things he did to her. Forced her to kill animals. Tried to make her kill children. Locked her into small dark places folded into a tiny contorted being for hours. Did you see this one, Lily?” He held up a picture of Saber lying on her stomach. She couldn’t have been more than thirteen. Several men stood around her with what looked to be glowing hot cigarettes. They had repeatedly touched the hot cigarettes to her skin.

“He didn’t want her to move or cry out,” Lily read from her copy of the file. “No matter what the discomfort-that’s the word he uses in his report-‘no matter the discomfort, the assassin must lie still and wait until that perfect moment to strike.’”

Jess wanted to pound something, preferably Whitney. “She always wears a T-shirt over her swimsuit.” He couldn’t vent his anger the way he wanted to because he was acutely aware of Lily’s tears. She was choking on them, outraged, horrified, and disgusted by the things her father was doing.

“You understand why I can’t stay in this house, don’t you, Jess?” Lily said. “I can’t take the risk that he could get his hands on my baby.”

“Of course you and the baby need to be safe, Lily. You’ve done more than your duty by the GhostWalkers and we’re all grateful to you.”

“We have to find a way to stop him. I thought it was just the girls in the laboratory where I was. But he has them scattered all over.”

“That would make sense. If one group was found-or destroyed-he’d have more to work with.”

She rubbed her head as if it ached. “I can’t find them all. I don’t even know how many I’m searching for.” She indicated the file on his desk. “Have you read it?”

“I haven’t had time yet,” Jess said. “Did he use pheromones on us?”

Lily sighed. “Yes. I’m sorry. You’ll always be physically attracted to her, Jess, but that doesn’t mean you won’t ever fall in love with someone else.”

“I’m in love with her.”

Lily shook her head and leaned forward to stare into the screen. “You’re in love with the image she’s presenting. Look at her childhood, Jess. She’s been regimented, trained, disciplined. She’s an assassin. Born and bred for it.”

“No, she wasn’t born for it, or bred for it,” Jess snapped. “She was taken as a child, essentially kidnapped, held prisoner, and subjected to torture. She learned to be what she is in order to survive, Lily. There’s a difference. And if you don’t know that difference…”

A male head leaned into the screen. “That’s enough,” Captain Ryland Miller interrupted. “She used a wrong turn of phrase, don’t read anything into it that wasn’t meant.”

Jess swallowed his anger. Yeah, Lily misspoke, and Jess’s temper was notorious. He had to keep it under control. It was just that the photographs were so heartbreaking. Whitney had documented the journey of a child into an assassin and he’d done it with obvious pride. If ever there was a man who needed killing, Peter Whitney was that man.

As if reading his mind, Lily spoke again. “You understand he could never have an operation of this magnitude-even with all of his money and the contacts and loyalties he’s built up-if he didn’t have sanction and a lot of help. He isn’t doing all this himself. There are too many projects. He may conceive the ideas, but others are taking over the experiments and carrying them out.”

Jess pushed back in his chair, this time using both hands to rake through his hair. He needed to see Saber, to touch her, to know that she was all right. He felt bruised and battered after viewing a small part of her childhood. He had been raised in a loving family, with wonderful parents and a sister who adored him. He couldn’t imagine what Saber’s childhood had been like.

“What else do you have for me, Lily?”

“You aren’t going to like it.”

“I don’t doubt that.” He hadn’t liked anything so far. Yeah, Whitney had help and whoever he had was trying to send the GhostWalkers on suicide missions. It was Jess’s job to find the leak in the chain of command and plug it up.

“He was there. When we operated on your legs, he was there.”

Jess felt his heart jump in his chest. The idea of Whitney walking into the hospital and observing his operation with security everywhere was just plain frightening. Lily had been there and Ryland always, always provided her with a guard.

“Are you certain?”

“I was able to hack into your file, and he has all the notes of his observations and conclusions there. He thought Eric and I did a brilliant job. He does say that while you work very hard at physical recovery, you’re neglecting the one thing that will make the bionics work and neither Eric nor I have managed to think of it. He wasn’t happy with either of us. He thinks we’re too focused on other things, me with the baby and Eric trying to play doctor to GhostWalkers.”

“What should you have told me?” Because the truth was, Peter Whitney was a brilliant man, and if they were missing something with the bionics, he’d know it.

“He mentioned your psychic abilities. You’re using physical capabilities to heal, but not mental. He notes that you should be doing exercises and imagery to form the neural pathways to map out the way from your brain to your legs.”

“I’ve been using visualization. You were the one who told me how to work on it. Whitney is full of crap.”

For the first time, Lily sent him a faint smile. “He says you’re a strong psychic and your brain is very developed, enough that you should be able to form the pathways quickly using visualization through that medium. And I agree with him. You’re using the normal part of your brain as well as physical therapy and we’re leaving out a vital part of what could springboard you to faster health. Also”-she hesitated and glanced at her husband-“he thought we should have used electrical current to stimulate the cells.”

“I’m not certain I like the speculation in your voice, Lily.”

Jess reached out and picked up the file on Saber, flipping through the photographs of her life. She looked so young, so innocent and vulnerable. It made no sense that she hadn’t touched Whitney’s protective streak. How could he look at her and not want to take care of her when she’d been such a beautiful child?

“Jess,” Lily said. “He may be a monster, but we should consider his medical opinion on this.”

“You want to zap me to see whether or not my nerves respond?”

“Well, electrical stimulation did in fact produce results in lizards who don’t normally regenerate a tail.”

“Oh, for God’s sake, Lily,” Jess said.

Several of the photographs slipped out of the folder onto the floor, sliding just out of easy reach. Jess sighed and bent down to pick them up. Saber’s hand was there first. It was the photo of her with a small chocolate dog-before and after she’d touched it.