GhostWalkers 4 - Conspiracy Game Read online

Page 12


  Ryland put his arms around her, leaning to nuzzle the top of her head. “But aren’t we watching him now?”

  Flame nodded. “He isn’t going to be able to get to you, Lily. Not you and certainly not the baby.”

  There was a murmur of agreement through the room and Lily relaxed visibly.

  “How are you watching him?” Ian asked.

  “I hoped I could access his computer as easily as he was accessing ours. I actually identified all of our computers and isolated his, so I knew I had the right one, but he had disallowed access.” Flame smiled. “So I changed tactics. I knew he was accessing certain files on a regular basis. He follows all of Lily’s findings and wants to see her updated reports on each of us.” She smirked. “He was particularly interested in my file.”

  “What a shocker, cher,” Gator murmured. “I’m interested in it too.” His hand swept down her arm, his fingers tangling with hers.

  Flame relaxed, leaning back against Gator. “I created a little surprise of my own for Dr. Whitney. I created a Trojan and embedded it in one of the regularly viewed files. First I had Lily update my file in order to entice him to take a long look at it.”

  “What does that do? How’d you do it?” Ian asked.

  Flame shrugged. “I assumed he was using Windows XP because all the computers here are XP. So I programmed the Trojan to do one thing. It goes into the controls for Remote Desktop on his computer and adjusts the settings that allow users to connect remotely to this computer across a LAN. Of course, we had to wait for the doctor to read the file embedded with the Trojan so he could unwittingly activate the program for us, but with Lily updating, he took the bait.”

  “That’s amazing, Flame. You can actually read his computer files?” Ian asked.

  Flame nodded. “It’s so perfect. If he weren’t masquerading as another computer on our LAN, we couldn’t turn around and return the favor by using Remote Desktop control, which is only possible for other computers on a LAN. But now we’ve activated the Remote Desktop setting on the doctor’s computer, we have access to his computer as if it were our own.”

  “So what is he up to?”

  Flame nodded toward Lily. “She can explain it better than I can.”

  Kadan held up his hand. “First of all, by reading the files, is there any way to positively identify who is spying on us?”

  Lily shook her head. “We can’t see who is creating files, but certainly I recognize my father’s type of notes. He likes to put everything into numbers, a kind of code, and definitely there are many files filled with numbers. In order to read the data, I have to break the code. It’s rarely the same in each file.”

  Kadan glanced at Ryland. “Someone very high up in the government has to be helping him. How sanctioned can Whitney be?”

  There was a small silence, no one wanting to mention the inevitable suspicion. They were under the direct command of one man, General Ranier.

  Lily shook her head. “I know what you’re all thinking. General Ranier has been a close friend of my family for years, but he can’t be involved.”

  “Why not?” Logan asked.

  Lily ducked her head. “Because if one more person I love is living a lie and betraying us, I don’t think I could live through it.”

  Ryland swept his arms around her and pulled her up against his body. “We’ve got Dahlia back and now Flame. We’ll find the rest of the girls and we’ll have our own family, Lily. No matter what happens, you have us.”

  “I’m scared, Rye,” she admitted. “I’m really scared this time.”

  “We’re not going to jump to any conclusions about General Ranier, Lily,” Kadan assured her. “And, Logan, you’ve got your own worries with the admiral who runs your unit. If we have a line into Peter Whitney’s computer, we might get lucky and come across an indication if either the general or the admiral is in any way associated with the doctor. In the meantime, we’d all better be very careful when our orders come down.”

  “To call me here, you must have found something on Jack or one of my other team members,” Logan said.

  Lily took a deep breath and nodded. “For purposes of simplicity, we’re going to refer to whoever is behind this as Dr. Whitney. Most of us believe he’s alive and pulling all the strings. Dr. Whitney appears to be trying to bring the women he first experimented on together with the men he later worked on. We believe he’s doing so as part of a much larger plan. Each of the women so far has been both psychically compatible and sexually attracted to one of the men. The couples work well together as a single weapon. As a team, they’re fully functional in a combat situation as well as being able to live and function in the world, which they cannot always do alone. Dahlia, if you recall, could not be out of the sanitarium for any length of time, but with Nico, she’s able to live a seminormal life.”

  “So far, that part doesn’t sound half-bad,” Logan said with a faint smile.

  “There are a few perks to the job,” Gator said, waggling his eyebrows at Flame.

  She rolled her eyes. “I don’t have a clue how I got into this.” She flashed a small smile at Logan. “Raoul is right, there are definite perks.”

  “So the doctor wants the men to hook up with the women,” Logan said. “What’s the big deal?”

  Lily frowned. “He made us all into weapons. Together, as a couple, we seem to be far more powerful, complementing or even amplifying the enhancements. Where before, a team could be sent in and the odds of success went up tenfold, imagine how much better if only two people could be sent in to clean up a mess, especially if the couple were as powerful as, or more so than, an entire team.”

  Logan switched his gaze to Gator and Flame Fontenot and Nicolas and Dahlia Trevane. “Do you think it’s true? The two of you could handle a mission without the entire team and do just as well?”

  The couples looked at one another, then nodded. “There’s no doubt, Logan, depending on what needed to be done,” Gator answered. “Flame and I manipulate sound, and without using Kadan—or someone else—as a shield to stop the corridor, it would get tricky, but we could definitely get the job done. Our abilities are amplified when we’re together. Both Flame and I are physically enhanced as well as psychically.”

  “We are too,” Dahlia said, taking Nico’s hand. “And like Gator and Flame, we work very well together.”

  Logan sighed. “This physical enhancement you’ve all mentioned… ”

  “And you know perfectly well your entire team is enhanced,” Lily broke in.

  Logan ran his finger around the collar of his shirt. “It’s just gene doping. Inserting our own DNA into our cells to pump them up, right?”

  “That would be what most doctors are doing these days, but Dr. Whitney took it a step further,” Ryland said. “He developed a chromosome in order to insert DNA and enhance the entire body both physically as well as psychically.”

  “Now I’m not understanding,” Logan admitted, frowning.

  Lily tapped her pencil on the table again, the only sign that her earlier nervousness remained. “Actually, chromosomes come in pairs. Technically, he developed an extra pair of chromosomes. And that gave him eighty thousand extra genes to play with, which can encode a lot of capability. Whatever psychic attributes you already have, the experiments increased, but more were added when he inserted the extra chromosome for physical enhancement. For instance: there is a huge evolutionary distance between man and mosquito, but in spite of that, at a molecular level, both are equipped with the same chemosensory system.”

  Logan whistled softly. “Whoa there. That’s a darned big jump from computers to chromosomes and mosquitoes. I’m guessing there’s a reason for that.”

  “I found a file on Dr. Whitney’s computer relating to Jack Norton and one of the women he first experimented on. Apparently Jack and Ken Norton had, prior to undergoing physical and psychic enhancement, tremendous talent already in both areas. Both have extensive military training and are highly skilled.”

  �
��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 surro
undings.”

  “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.”

 

    Dark Legacy Read onlineDark LegacyDark Predator Read onlineDark PredatorShadow Keeper Read onlineShadow KeeperThe Twilight Before Christmas Read onlineThe Twilight Before ChristmasOceans of Fire Read onlineOceans of FireCovert Game Read onlineCovert GameConspiracy Game Read onlineConspiracy GameDark Lycan Read onlineDark LycanMagic in the Wind Read onlineMagic in the WindDark Dream Read onlineDark DreamTurbulent Sea Read onlineTurbulent SeaDark Storm Read onlineDark StormDark Ghost Read onlineDark GhostShadow Rider Read onlineShadow RiderDark Secret Read onlineDark SecretShadow Reaper Read onlineShadow ReaperBound Together Read onlineBound TogetherDark Melody Read onlineDark MelodyWild Rain Read onlineWild RainDark Desire Read onlineDark DesireLeopard's Blood Read onlineLeopard's BloodPower Game Read onlinePower GameRuthless Game Read onlineRuthless GameDark Descent Read onlineDark DescentSpider Game Read onlineSpider GameDark Possession Read onlineDark PossessionCat's Lair Read onlineCat's LairDark Slayer Read onlineDark SlayerDark Peril Read onlineDark PerilDark Wolf Read onlineDark WolfDark Curse Read onlineDark CurseDeadly Game Read onlineDeadly GameA Very Gothic Christmas Read onlineA Very Gothic ChristmasLeopard's Prey Read onlineLeopard's PreyWild Fire Read onlineWild FireDark Demon Read onlineDark DemonSpirit Bound Read onlineSpirit BoundDark Hunger Read onlineDark HungerThe Shadows of Christmas Past Read onlineThe Shadows of Christmas PastDark Fire Read onlineDark FireDark Challenge Read onlineDark ChallengeEarth Bound Read onlineEarth BoundLeopard's Fury Read onlineLeopard's FurySavage Nature Read onlineSavage NatureSamurai Game Read onlineSamurai GameWild Cat Read onlineWild CatHidden Currents Read onlineHidden CurrentsJudgment Road Read onlineJudgment RoadFire Bound Read onlineFire BoundWater Bound Read onlineWater BoundDark Destiny Read onlineDark DestinyDark Legend Read onlineDark LegendSafe Harbor Read onlineSafe HarborShadow Game Read onlineShadow GameDark Carousel Read onlineDark CarouselDark Crime Read onlineDark CrimeNight Game Read onlineNight GameDark Promises Read onlineDark PromisesDark Magic Read onlineDark MagicDark Symphony Read onlineDark SymphonyDark Gold Read onlineDark GoldDark Prince Read onlineDark PrinceDark Guardian Read onlineDark GuardianDangerous Tides Read onlineDangerous TidesShadow Flight (The Shadow Series) Read onlineShadow Flight (The Shadow Series)The Awakening Read onlineThe AwakeningThe Twilight Before Christmas (stories) Read onlineThe Twilight Before Christmas (stories)Viper Game Read onlineViper GameBurning Wild Read onlineBurning WildShadow Flight Read onlineShadow FlightLeopard's Wrath (A Leopard Novel) Read onlineLeopard's Wrath (A Leopard Novel)Shadow Warrior (The Shadow Series Book 4) Read onlineShadow Warrior (The Shadow Series Book 4)Lair of the Lion Read onlineLair of the LionLeopard's Rage Read onlineLeopard's RageMurder Game Read onlineMurder GameAir Bound Read onlineAir BoundPredatory Game Read onlinePredatory GameLethal Game Read onlineLethal GameMind Game Read onlineMind GameVengeance Road Read onlineVengeance RoadThe Scarletti Curse Read onlineThe Scarletti CurseLeopard's Rage (Leopard People) Read onlineLeopard's Rage (Leopard People)Dark Song Read onlineDark SongVendetta Road Read onlineVendetta RoadMurder at Sunrise Lake Read onlineMurder at Sunrise LakeReckless Road Read onlineReckless RoadDark Prince (Dark Series - book 1) Read onlineDark Prince (Dark Series - book 1)Dark Illusion ('Dark' Carpathian Book 33) Read onlineDark Illusion ('Dark' Carpathian Book 33)Dark Desire (Dark Series - book 2) Read onlineDark Desire (Dark Series - book 2)Dark Predator d-22 Read onlineDark Predator d-22Leopard's Run Read onlineLeopard's RunDark Curse 19 Read onlineDark Curse 19Fire Bound (Sea Haven Sisters Read onlineFire Bound (Sea Haven SistersDark Sentinel Read onlineDark SentinelRuthless Game g-9 Read onlineRuthless Game g-9Dark Slayer 20 Read onlineDark Slayer 20Judgment Road (Torpedo Ink #1) Read onlineJudgment Road (Torpedo Ink #1)Rocky Mountain Miracle Read onlineRocky Mountain MiracleGhostWalkers 4 - Conspiracy Game Read onlineGhostWalkers 4 - Conspiracy GameDark Demon 16 Read onlineDark Demon 16Dark Storm ('Dark' Carpathian Series) Read onlineDark Storm ('Dark' Carpathian Series)Dark Symphony (Dark Series - book 10) Read onlineDark Symphony (Dark Series - book 10)Dark Celebration 17 Read onlineDark Celebration 17Dark Descent (Dark Series - Book 11) Read onlineDark Descent (Dark Series - Book 11)Dark Prince (Author's cut special edition) Read onlineDark Prince (Author's cut special edition)Shadowgame Read onlineShadowgameDark Fire (Dark Series - book 6) Read onlineDark Fire (Dark Series - book 6)Drake Sisters 06 - Turbulent Sea Read onlineDrake Sisters 06 - Turbulent SeaDark Blood (Dark Series Book 26) Read onlineDark Blood (Dark Series Book 26)Dark Challenge (Dark Series - book 5) Read onlineDark Challenge (Dark Series - book 5)Dark Blood Deleted Scenes Read onlineDark Blood Deleted ScenesFantasy Read onlineFantasyDark 18 - Dark Possession Read onlineDark 18 - Dark PossessionL06 Leopard's Prey Read onlineL06 Leopard's PreyDark Sentinel ('Dark' Carpathian Book 32) Read onlineDark Sentinel ('Dark' Carpathian Book 32)Dark Gold (Dark Series - book 3) Read onlineDark Gold (Dark Series - book 3)Dark Guardian (Dark Series - book 9) Read onlineDark Guardian (Dark Series - book 9)The Wicked and the Wondrous Read onlineThe Wicked and the WondrousDark Magic (Dark Series - book 4) Read onlineDark Magic (Dark Series - book 4)Dark Dream (Dark Series - book 7) Read onlineDark Dream (Dark Series - book 7)Christine Feehan 5 CARPATHIAN NOVELS Read onlineChristine Feehan 5 CARPATHIAN NOVELSGW10 Samurai Game Read onlineGW10 Samurai GameLover Beware Read onlineLover BewareShadow Game (GhostWalkers) Read onlineShadow Game (GhostWalkers)[Magic Sisters 05] - Safe Harbor Read online[Magic Sisters 05] - Safe HarborDark 12 - DARK MELODY Read onlineDark 12 - DARK MELODYGhostWalkers 2 - Mind Game Read onlineGhostWalkers 2 - Mind GameDarkDescent Read onlineDarkDescentDark Melody (Dark Series - book 12) Read onlineDark Melody (Dark Series - book 12)