Ghostwalker 06 - Predatory Game

the steady beat and the flow of blood through arteries and veins. She let out her breath at the exact moment that Chaleen did, allowing air to rush through her lungs. For a moment she experienced that strange euphoria that came with blending body rhythms.
    Sharing the same skin, the same breath, the same heartbeat was unique and incredible, an indescribable feeling. The most difficult moment came with that connection. She couldn’t react to the exhilaration.She had to keep that same steady beat so that they were one being.
    “I did go see him, but there was no chance to get into his office. I’ve observed members of his team here, but they’re friends of his.”
    Although her concentration was on Chaleen, Saber’s warning system began to shriek at her. There was no sound. GhostWalkers rarely gave themselves away with noise, but the energy coming toward her was very aggressive and it was coming fast. Time was running out. It was now or never.
    Saber introduced the smallest blip in the steady rhythm. Chaleen reacted by pressing her hand to her chest.
    “Look, I’m telling you this is a waste of time. Jess Calhoun is a patriot and he’s given most of his life to his country.I’ll be damned if I’m a party to any of this. We’re supposed to be on the same side, Karl.”
    Saber closed her eyes, allowing her breath to escape. Chaleen might be an operative for someone, but she wasn’t trying to kill Jess. She wasn’t enhanced and there was no way Saber could confirm a connection to Whitney. Slowly, with tremendous care, she lifted her fingers from Chaleen’s ankle. The heart wouldn’t seize, would remain beating normally, and Chaleen would never know just how close to death she’d been.
    “I suggest you put your hands where I can see them,” Ken Norton said, his voice low, but carrying a threat that sent a shiver down Saber’s spine.
    Chaleen snapped the cell phone closed and whirled around to face the GhostWalker, nearly stepping on Saber. “Don’t point that gun at me. You know who I am and who I work for.”
    Saber inched her way back into thick brush. If Ken was here, Mari would be covering his back, and that left the way open to get back inside the house.
    “I thought the CIA had stopped harassing Jess just about the time he lost his legs. Isn’t that when you left him because he wasn’t of use to you?”
    “He never was of use to me.”
    “No, I’m betting he wasn’t one for pillow talk. Go away, Chaleen.”
    “Kiss my ass, Norton,” Chaleen said.
    Saber crawled as quickly as she could through the brush until she was in heavier woods. She ran, staying Generated by ABC Amber LIT Conv erter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
    to the shadows, wishing she could hear more of the conversation but knowing eventually Jess would come looking for her.
    It took less than a third of the time to make her way back, as she knew the GhostWalkers were occupied with Chaleen. She made certain she stayed small and blended into the night so that she didn’t draw Mari’s eye. Keeping her energy low, even as she ran, kept the guards’ sixth sense from tripping.
    Saber leapt onto the garage roof, used it to springboard onto the house roof, and crawled to the dormer.
    It was a little trickier making the jump and catching the ledge, removing the louvers one-handed, but she had practiced, and she managed to make it into the attic before Ken returned.
    Breathing a sigh of relief that she hadn’t had to kill Chaleen, Saber made her way back to her sitting room and hastily changed.

    “You’re looking very pregnant, Lily,” Jess greeted, glancing up at the video picture of Dr. Lily Whitney-Miller, daughter of Peter Whitney, the man who had begun the psychic experiments.
    Lily sat perched in a chair, her face serious and pale, her eyes wide with concern. “I’m due in a couple of weeks, Jess. And I’m not certain we’ll be able to stay here after that, which means we’ll lose what little advantage we have. It isn’t safe.”
    “I understand.”
    And he did. She lived in the house Peter Whitney had built, complete with secret labs and eighty rooms and underground tunnels. The sophisticated equipment inside was his brainchild and he had a back door into it all, so he could review everything his daughter did. Unbeknownst to Peter Whitney, Lily had turned the tables on him and had found a way to tap into his computers, so in effect, they were watching each other.
    Lily basically lived in a fishbowl where