Ghostwalker 03 - Night Game

doesn’t include handwritten notes. I started with the girls because we wanted to find them, but my father’s observations are mostly on paper and old archived disks. He references nearly everything with numbers. I have to figure out what the number refers to before I can keep going in my research to see what he did.
    It’s very time-consuming work, and it isn’t easy.”

    Lily didn’t make excuses. This was so far out of character for her. Had she discovered the truth about him? He had watched the video of Iris “Flame” Johnson so many times maybe she’d become curious. Maybe she’d seen him stop the tape and study the picture—the one that showed the walls expand and contract slightly. The one where the floor shifted minutely when Flame’s little gaze had narrowed on the doctor. She’d detested Dr. Whitney and her temper had barely been controlled.

    “What have you discovered, Lily?”

    “I think my father also did gene enhancing on the girls—as well as on some of you men.” The words left her in a little rush. This time her gaze met his squarely as if trying to read his reaction.

    He counted to ten in silence before he spoke. “Why would you think that?”

    “The referencing numbers have two letters beside them, and I couldn’t figure it out. G.E.
    I went through a million possibilities until I found a small hidden cabinet in the laboratory. It was locked and coded. There were several notebooks on Iris. She was definitely genetically enhanced. G.E. Those letters were throughout the files, and I’ve seen them on several other files. Most of the files. I think the letters reference back to genetic enhancement.”

    “The girls. You used the phrase the girls rather than on us . As in including yourself.”

    Lily shook her head. “There are no G.E. notations in my files anywhere. Believe me, I looked.”

    “Why do you think that would be, Lily?” He kept his voice fiat, even, ultra-calm.

    “He used viruses to introduce the therapy to the cells.” Her voice faltered for the briefest of moments, but she carried on, her chin up. “I don’t think he wanted to take any chances with me, and he could use me as the control subject.”

    “What was in the file that I should know about?”

    “Flame had cancer. The symptoms presented nearly the same as leukemia. Bruising, fatigue, abnormal bleeding, bone and joint pain. All of it. He put it into remission, but…”
    She trailed off.

    “But he didn’t stop. He continued to enhance her cells.”

    Lily looked miserable as she nodded. “Yes. He continued to experiment on her. One of the problems when using a virus to infect the cells is the body produces antibodies to fight it off. By the second or third round, it does no good to use that virus.”

    “So he made up another one.”

    “Several of them. He obviously wanted to perfect his technique for later use. I think all of us girls were his first tries—”

    “You mean his expendable rats,” Gator interrupted harshly. He curled his fingers into tight fists. “You were all expendable. No one wanted you. And he didn’t like her, did he?
    She was a lot of trouble because she was so strong-willed, just as Dahlia was—Dahlia, who was raised in a sanitarium, not a home.”

    “That’s true, Gator, but thankfully, although Dahlia is enhanced, she has never had cancer. Nor could I find references to cancer in the files of any of the other girls he experimented on.”

    Lily pressed her fingertips just above her eyes. “I haven’t gone through everything in Flame’s file but the cancer returned several times and each time he adjusted the virus and continued doping her after he put the cancer in remission. She’s very enhanced.”

    “And you suspect I am as well.”

    She bit her lip, but nodded again. “Are you, Gator? Can you run faster, jump higher?
    None of you have ever mentioned it to me—not even Ryland.”

    He avoided the question. “Are you warning us that anyone who might be enhanced is susceptible to cancer?”

    “I have no idea,” she said truthfully. “I believe he was working on a way to prevent the doping from stimulating the wrong cells. I think he used Flame to perfect his technique so he could make certain you and the others had fewer problems.”

    “Charmin’ son of bitch, wasn’t he?” Gator stuffed the jeans into the duffel bag with a short violent stabbing motion. “He used her like a damn lab rat.”

    “It’s worse than that, Gator. I