Ghostwalker 09 - Ruthless Game

back. Javier seemed to disappear and then just emerge from the wal itself. She put a hand to her throat, shocked at the way he was looking at her as wel . She had gone from potential enemy to reserved acceptance. She was grateful she was on his good side.
    “I don’t know what happens,” she admitted. “My body takes over my brain and just acts. I barely remember what I did.”
    “You cut him open and put your hand inside of him,” Javier said.
    She shivered, remembering his reaction. Javier had placed a knife to her throat. The gesture had seemed casual but was anything but. She’d kept working, knowing she didn’t have much time. She’d found the severed artery and repaired it within minutes, shouting for Mack to give Kane her blood immediately.
    It had al been hazy from the moment she’d pul ed Kane into the helicopter, “saw” the severed artery, and cut him open. Mack hadn’t hesitated, starting the transfusion immediately, even as Gideon gave him plasma. She’d been so frightened, wanting to grab Sebastian and leap from the helicopter, taking her chances with the unknown rather than with these grim-faced strangers without Kane.
    Oddly, it had been Javier who helped her. He held her stable through the flight, using his own body to prop her up. He’d asked one of the others to slip makeshift pil ows under her arms to help keep them up and then had her covered with a warm blanket as she crouched over Kane. Her blood flowed into Kane’s body in a desperate attempt to keep him from bleeding to death, while her fingers, deep inside his body, had reinforced her repair of the artery.
    She would never forget that incredible helicopter ride as she tried to breathe for Kane, wil ing him to live with every ounce of strength she possessed.
    “Whitney never found out about you?” Kane asked.
    She shook her head. “I told you, even as children we knew we had to hide our gifts from him. He might help us develop them, but had he known about me, he would have put the other girls in jeopardy just to see me use it. He can be very cruel. He doesn’t look at it that way. Everything he does, for him, is justified in the advancement of science.”
    “That’s why you have such a difficult time with Eric,” Kane guessed.
    Rose nodded. “His need to learn can outweigh his moral scruples. Once a man believes that an individual doesn’t count for the good of the masses, he crosses a line and is capable, in the name of science, of anything. Whitney crossed that line a long time ago. He believes himself far above everyone else in intel ect. He has powerful friends who aid him. That only feeds his ego and belief that he’s above the rest of humanity. Laws don’t apply to him.”
    “Can you see the fantastic job Dr. Lambert did?” Paul asked, indicating Kane.
    She shook her head. “It never happens unless there’s a crisis. That’s why I can’t be certain Sebastian is completely healthy. I know he’s not in immediate danger, but I can’t examine him.”
    “Do any of the other women have this talent?” Paul asked.
    “We stopped sharing information fairly early on because he recorded our conversations. Most of us became very secretive. Whitney believed we each had one strong talent and maybe another to a far lesser degree. It wasn’t until he began experimenting on adults that he discovered there could be more than one strong psychic talent in one individual. He isolated us after that, but we’d learned to be vigilant by that time.”
    Kane tugged at her hand, a little disconcerted to have Paul staring at his insides. “Come take a look at the baby, Paul.”
    “I’ve never real y examined an infant,” Paul hedged. “I’m not certain I’m real y qualified to do this.”
    “You’re what we have,” Kane said. “That makes you qualified. Take a look at him.” He stepped back to al ow Paul into the bedroom where the smal crib was.
    Rose hovered close as Paul approached the crib. Kane indicated for Javier to fol ow him out of the room. He wanted to know exactly what threats his family faced. Rose wouldn’t leave Sebastian’s side while Paul was with him, giving him the opportunity to assess the risks.
    “Where’s Mack?” he demanded.
    “Didn’t Paul just tel you to rest?” Javier asked, one eyebrow raised.
    “The hel with that. What’s going on, Javier? Half the team is missing, and don’t tel me they’re out on a mission somewhere.”
    Javier shrugged and swaggered into the kitchen to