Ghostwalker 08 - Street Game

program if he backed her husband’s bid for the vice presidency. She and her husband are the ones who sent Team Two to the Congo and tipped off the rebels where they were going to be.”
    There was a small silence while they absorbed the treachery of the woman’s actions. There were very few GhostWalkers and all of them knew just how difficult one another’s lives were. Violet had been raised with Whitney’s youngest, earliest victims, yet she appeared not to have any loyalty to them at all.
    “I could take her out when she comes out, boss,” Gideon reminded.
    “She’s not the objective,” Mack said. “We’re here to protect Kane and Brian and to get Jefferson off Sergeant Major.”
    “I could stop the car down the road,” Javier offered.
    “Too dangerous. Jefferson’s death has to look like a legitimate heart attack. If we take out a GhostWalker, they’re going to know someone was in the area.”
    Gideon swore under his breath. “We have to just let her walk?”
    Mack shrugged. “There’ll be another time and another place. There always is.
    Right now, we’re here for Jefferson. We know he’s after Kane and Brian and he’s certainly the one who ordered the hit on Sergeant Major when they lost track of him.
    We’ve got to look after our own first.”
    Violet sank into a chair, accepting the crystal glass Jefferson handed her. “How’s the senator?” he asked as he gave the drink to her.
    The voices sounded tinny through the recorder. Javier adjusted something Mack couldn’t see, frowning as he did so.
    Violet, her eyes on Jefferson’s face, held the glass under her nose and inhaled.
    “We’re on the same side, Violet,” Jefferson reminded.
    “Anyone in my position can’t be too careful, and Whitney and I didn’t part on the best of terms. He had my husband shot.”

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    “He saved his life. No one else could have done that operation,” Jefferson pointed out.
    “He wouldn’t have needed the operation if Whitney hadn’t arranged for an assassination.” She put her drink down and leaned forward. “Let’s quit playing games, Jefferson. I want Whitney off our backs.”
    “It isn’t going to happen, Violet. You can join the other side and try to wipe out all the GhostWalkers or you can come back to the fold where you belong. Without us, your husband has no career and without Whitney, he’s a dead man.”
    Mack was watching the woman’s face closely. Jefferson was a man in extreme danger. He thought he was holding all the cards, but she was weighing whether or not to kill him. She looked cool and composed, but Mack knew exactly what was going on in her mind.
    Jefferson appeared confident, but he must have felt death in her silence. He set his drink aside and shook his head. “What good would it do you to kill me, Violet?
    Whitney would retaliate against you by letting Ed die. This is about him, isn’t it?
    Your husband? You want him alive. Only Whitney can keep him alive.”
    “As a puppet,” she snapped. “We both will have to do his bidding.”
    “Without Whitney, neither of you would have a decent life. It’s time to pay the piper, Violet,” Jefferson said. “It isn’t like Ed is a viable candidate for the vice presidency. Whitney had to practically replace his brain.”
    “My husband can still have a political career.”
    Jefferson sat back in his chair and once again picked up his glass, regarding her over the top of it. “Now we come to the real reason you’re here. What exactly do you want and what are you offering?”
    “I can find the missing women for Whitney. They escaped. Whitney wants them back. I can get them for him. I have the resources. And I can tap into the women’s networks better than anyone else. In return, I want Ed completely well.”
    “He was brain-dead, Violet.”
    “Not anymore. Not with this new technology. Get him up and running and put him back in the political arena. I can handle everything else. No one will ever get close enough to know he’s not all human.”
    “You’re asking a lot,” Jefferson said, and took a sip of his brandy.
    “One of the women is pregnant. The father is a GhostWalker. She has extraordinary talents, as does he. Their child alone will be worth what I’m asking.
    You and your friends back Ed’s career and we’re back on track. Whitney will have a friend in the White House for life.”
    Gideon gasped. “That bitch. She’d sell out her own mother.”

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    “Just make certain you’ve got this