Ghostwalker 05 - Deadly Game

attention to her. "Stay where you are, Mari. You don't want Rose to get hurt, now, do you?"
    Rose? Are you out? Mari hesitated, needing reassurance.
    Kane made me run. He fought off a couple of the guards. Someone, must be your friends, provided covering fire. I'm over the fence and running free. Someone tried to stop me; he kept shouting they could get me out, but I don't trust anyone. I'm sticking to our original plan. Scatter and evade. I can get to the stash of money and take my share.
    Mari knew she had hesitated too long. Most of Whitney's supersoldiers in the vicinity wrestled Sean to the ground. He was making animal noises and still trying to crawl, with the security force on his back, toward Whitney.
    Cami. Are all the girls safe and away?
    We're close. We'll scatter and will meet you at the rendezvous point, Cami confirmed.
    Are you out? I'll come back and help.
    The doctor sighed. "You're a lot more talented than I ever suspected, aren't you, Mari?
    And to think I nearly gave the order to eliminate you. Are you pregnant with Norton's child?"
    "You sent Sean to me last night. I won't know until after it's born, will I?" She took another step back, but two of Whitney's guards were locked on to her. Each step she took, they mirrored, so they were doing a macabre dance with her.
    It was bizarre and very difficult to be in a deadly dance and yet hold a telepathic conversation with her sister. Of course Cami would risk her life and return to aid Mari.
    Mari would do it for her. No! Keep moving. I'm going with Ken to his home in Montana.
    She sent the images of its location she'd picked out his head.
    "I don't understand how I could have missed your abilities all these years." Whitney frowned and rubbed at the bridge of his nose.
    "I knew you were psychic. You use touch, don't you?" she guessed shrewdly, hoping to throw the guards off by talking to Whitney. She gained a few more inches, but the entrance to the stairs was still so far away. She was fast, very fast, but Whitney's team was enhanced.
    No! Cami objected. Don't trust any of them. Stick to our plan.
    Go, Cami. I'm in a fight right now. Get away!
    "Very good, my dear. Of course I do. I have a superior brain as well as being psychic.
    There are very few true strong psychics in the world." He glanced toward Sean. The man was pinned down and secured with flex-cuffs on both his ankles and wrists. He was still fighting to get to Whitney. "You controlled his mind, Mari. You planted a suggestion, a nasty one at that. He hasn't touched you, has he? He simply thinks that he has. Yet Brett…,"
    he said thoughtfully, a small frown of concentration on his face.
    Mari leapt to cover the distance, using enhanced physical ability to gain the stairway. She grasped the railing, leapt onto it, and, using it as a springboard, jumped half a flight of stairs. She raced up to the third-level landing. She heard Whitney yell to his men to go after her, and she caught the second banister and made a second jump.
    Ken. I'm on the run. Are the other women away clean? She didn't like that almost Cami had given her and wanted him with her. She could hear the men, one leaping after her, the other galloping up the stairs, talking into a radio, and telling someone to cut her off.
    Someone was waiting on the next staircase; she heard the radio and the buzz of men's voices.
    I led them out through the corridor. Your friend Cami's taking them the rest of the way.
    It's up to them to get out once they're on the surface. Jack says all hell is breaking loose.
    I'm on my way back to you.
    I'm on the stairs, trying to get to level two, but I'm trapped between two security teams. I don't think I can make it to you. You'll have to go without me.
    Like hell, don't be ridiculous. I'm not leaving without you. How close are you to level two? Can you beat the team chasing you?

    Yes, but I'm running right into the men waiting for me. Mari paused, unable to decide what direction would be the most promising.
    Keep going, sweetheart. Fast. You want to be at the top; hit them hard and mean, buy us a couple of seconds.
    What are you going to do?
    I'm going to take down his house. I take it Sean didn't get him?
    No, and Whitney realized he was under a suggestion, but he thinks I did it. She had sprinted as fast as she could up the long staircase. Without slowing down, she hit the door and plowed into the security guard waiting there for her. They both went down, Mari kicking hard at his face.
    The guard