Ghostwalker 06 - Predatory Game

‘control cell identity, cell number, position and movement, which is relevant to everything from embryonic development to regeneration to cancer and almost any biomedical phenomenon you could imagine.’ I don’t want to know what that means in terms of your bionics, Jess. You can’t just introduce electricity into the body. It can kill you. I ought to know.”
    “Or it can be used to save someone, the way it did Patsy.”
    She shook her head. “I’m not having this discussion with you. I’m not. I don’t care if you get angry with me, I’m not risking your life. I won’t do it. And you’d better keep those two friends of yours away, because neither one of them is doing it either.” She sent him a smoldering look, controlled fury in her eyes. “I’m going to work. Never, and I mean never, bring this up to me again.”
    She turned to walk out of the bedroom. The door slammed closed, trapping her inside the room.

CHAPTER 17
    Saber turned around slowly, trying to tamp down the anger suddenly churning in her stomach.“Open it.”
    Jess reached down to the floor to scoop up his trousers and shirt. “We need to talk about this, and since Generated by ABC Amber LIT Conv erter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
    I can’t chase after you…”
    “Don’t you dare play your wheelchair card on me,” Saber hissed. “I don’t deserve it. I’m going to take a shower and find clean clothes. I’ll talk to you when I’ve calmed down. Open the door, Jesse.”
    Jess realized getting her to say she would talk after a shower was the best he was going to get. If he made her any angrier, she wasn’t going to listen to anything he had to say.“After your shower we can meet in the kitchen.”
    She stood waiting, tapping her foot in silence.
    “It’s easier to close doors than open them,” he admitted. “I’ll meet you in fifteen minutes.”
    Saber yanked the door open and stalked through to the hallway. She ran up the stairs, furious with Jess, angry that he would risk his life. He had a good life. Most people would have given anything to have what he had. A family. Parents who loved him. A sister like Patsy.
    “Damn you, Jesse,” she yelled and slammed the bathroom door.
    It didn’t improve her mood to find the stack of brand-new clothes neatly folded, tags still on, waiting for her. She wouldn’t have minded had Patsy bought them, or even Mari, but she suspected Mari wouldn’t have thought of it and Patsy was in the hospital.No, this was from Lily. All the sizes were correct and there was just about everything she would need.
    She took a deep calming breath and stepped under the water, turning her face up to let the hot stream run over her. She couldn’t blame Jess for asking her to try to help him walk, as much as she wanted to.
    He would never have been a SEAL or joined the GhostWalkers if he didn’t have a strong need for action and risk. He had to be intensely patriotic and he desperately needed the use of his legs to get back into action.
    As she shampooed her hair she thought about patriotism. She detested everything about Whitney and tended to want to believe the monster had no good qualities, but he was a brilliant researcher and his training methods did bring results. She was afraid of the dark, yet she could move through a house unerringly to find her target in complete darkness. Her natural personality was to be emotional, yet she could be tortured and not cry out. She wasn’t good at pain, but she’d learned to accept it. And why did Whitney fool himself into believing that the end results justified the means? Patriotism.
    Whitney was a patriot. She washed the soap from her hair and added conditioner.The GhostWalkers were all patriots. “I’m not.” She said it aloud. Said it defiantly. She wasn’t killing because some bastard high up in the government decided someone else needed to die. What was wrong with everyone? How could they trust an order that came down from someone they didn’t even know? Someone who could care less about them. Someone who maybe even had their own agenda, or was as loony as Whitney. It made no sense to her.
    She dried off, repeating to herself that she was not going to let Jess persuade her. It was the height of stupidity. But with a sinking heart she knew if Jesse said just the right thing, looked at her a certain way, she’d give in—because she loved him. And love seemed to make her do really stupid things.
    She dressed carefully, hoping to