Ghostwalker 05 - Deadly Game

there was no public document on him, not even a driver's license. Strangely enough, the company in Wyoming mirrored the one in Nevada. Both consulting companies were represented by the same attorney, who had purchased the jets for each.
    The corporation in Wyoming owned a great deal of wilderness in the Cascades, inaccessible by anything but small planes landing on the very expensive airstrip or by a rapid and dangerous river. The senator just happened to own a hunting cabin on the adjacent land and have landing privileges given by the Wyoming consulting company. The same attorney had been used to acquire those privileges.
    Jack and Ken had been on their way to do a little recon when the orders came down to protect the senator. Their team had taken a helicopter into the remote area and set up surveillance and an exit plan. The senator had insisted he and his wife should continue their hunting trip in spite of the danger, and she had concurred, turning down the team's recommendation to move to a more secure area.
    Ken tried not to think about the woman slung around his shoulders, or how her body felt against his. He didn't want to touch her skin or feel for a pulse, or acknowledge the slide of silky hair along his jaw where her head bounced. She seemed to envelop him, and the scent of her soaked into him through his pores, his lungs, deep into his tissues and bones where he knew he'd never eradicate her.
    He wanted to stay numb for the rest of his life. He didn't want to have to face another trial by fire. He wasn't certain he was strong enough to overcome the rage living and breathing inside of him. He couldn't afford to feel. He couldn't afford to want or need. He lived for the job. He lived to keep Jack safe, and now Briony and the twins she carried. Life for him had stopped almost before he was born, and it was much safer for everyone that way.
    This unknown woman, already the enemy, could destroy not only him, but his family. It was through no fault of her own, but he didn't dare allow compassion to sway his course.
    He was not going to become more of a monster than he already was. Inch by slow inch, his life had been compromised, until his outside skin reflected the dark shadows inside him where no one could see.
    The hounds have been unleashed, Kadan warned. Not one stayed to go after the senator.
    They're coming after you. I don't dare leave the senator, just in case this is a setup, but watch yourself. I'm not certain who your sniper is, or why he's so important, but get the hell out of there. You're in enemy territory. And he'll be able to communicate with them if you don't get him out of range.
    Copy that, Jack said. He'd dropped back even farther to protect them as they raced toward safety. And our him is a her.
    Ken didn't bother to acknowledge. He splashed through three narrow streams and up a steep embankment, grateful for the fact that he was genetically enhanced. He could run long distances without fighting for air, and carrying the woman, as small as she was, was no problem. But soldiers coming up behind them were enhanced as well, and they carried guns. He tried to stay to the heavier foliage when at all possible, deep in the trees, careful not to expose his body as he ran toward the rendezvous point.

    The sound of the helicopter reached him. It was flying in low and fast. Kadan had held the other team off to give them the break they needed.
    They might double back on you out of sheer frustration, Ken warned Kadan.
    Nico flew over that stretch of land the corporation you were talking about owns. It's a military training facility, Kadan announced. Watch yourself, they may track you in the air.
    Ken swore softly and moved into position just on the edge of the clearing, where he could stay covered by the foliage. Jack came up behind him, but faced back toward the way they'd come.
    "You need to get out of this, Jack," Ken said. "I'll have Nico drop me at a safe house and you get home to Briony. This most likely isn't going to end well."
    "I'm not running out and leaving you in a hornet's nest."
    "And what if we have to kill her? What then? Just go home and you're out of it. You never have to tell her we found her sister."
    "Lie to Briony? Live a lie with her? That's what everyone else did to her all those years.
    I'm damned if I do. I promised her I'd always tell her the truth, and no matter how messy this gets, she gets told everything just the way it happened."
    "You don't have to be in it."
    "We