GhostWalkers 10 - Samurai Game

no choice,” Sam said and dragged a shirt off the nightstand. He didn’t bother with shoes, padding barefoot after Ryland and Azami.
    His teammates circled him almost protectively and hefound himself grateful for their camaraderie. They might not understand, but they were showing support, hoping Ryland wouldn’t take his head off, or confine him to quarters for the rest of his life.
    Sam waited until Azami sank gracefully into a chair before he chose the one beside her. He caught the men exchanging quick glances, but he didn’t care. Azami wasn’t going to be alone when Ryland questioned her. Sam was absolutely convinced she wasn’t Whitney’s ally and that she was no threat to Daniel. If anything, she wanted to help the child.
    “Perhaps a cup of tea,” Azami suggested. “If that’s possible.”
    She appeared absolutely calm—much calmer than he was feeling. Sam wanted to gather her close and protect her from what was to come, but she clearly didn’t need him to shield her. There was no fluttering of nervous hands; she folded them neatly in her lap and simply waited while everyone took a chair. Ryland nodded toward Gator, who quickly leapt up to make a cup of tea for Azami.
    “Ms. Yoshiie,” Ryland began.
    She inclined her head in that graceful, demure way she had. “Please call me Azami. I would prefer to learn American ways.”
    “Azami then,” Ryland said, in no way deceived by her delicate features. “I think it’s time for an explanation, don’t you?”
    “You certainly deserve one,” she agreed. “You’ve been more than patient. Dr. Whitney called me Thorn. He gave the girls names of flowers and seasons, a careless acknowledgment that we had to be called something other than the numbers he gave us in his files. He thought me quite useless as anything other than for experiments, so instead of a Lily, or a Rose, I was a Thorn to him, a constant pain that nagged at him until he threw me away—back onto the streets in Japan. I was eight years old.”
    Silence greeted her matter-of-fact revelation. Ryland putboth hands on the table and leaned toward her, his piercing steel gaze fixing steadily on her face.
    “GhostWalkers recognize one another by the energy surrounding us. I don’t feel it when you walk into a room.” Ryland made it a statement. He looked to Kadan for confirmation.
    Sam shoved down anger. He rarely got angry, but Ryland was all but calling her a liar.
    Kadan shook his head. “I don’t feel anything at all,” he agreed, “but Sam did. From the very beginning he felt something was off about the Yoshiie family, in particular Azami. He went so far as to scan their faces and send them to Lily to run the facial recognition program.” Kadan too leaned toward Azami, a slight frown on his face. “Why would Whitney find you useless to him and the program when you’re obviously gifted?”
    “Whitney is able to recognize those with psychic talents, even when they are mere infants. Unfortunately he isn’t a terribly patient man with children. My ability to teleport didn’t appear until I was ten.”
    “There was a mention of a child named Thorn,” Kadan told Ryland. “Jesse, from Team Two, his wife, Saber, talked about her a few times.”
    Azami remained quiet, and she held herself away from Sam. He knew what she was doing. If Ryland didn’t accept the things she told him—if this meeting turned bad—she didn’t want him in trouble with his unit or to have to make a choice between them.
    Don’t worry about me, Azami. I’m a grown man. I make my choices and I live with them. I know exactly what I’m doing and why.
    Ryland’s head snapped around. “Speak out loud for everyone to hear if you have something to say, Sam. That’s why you’re here, isn’t it?”
    Sam had rarely heard Ryland use that voice and more than anything else, as low and as stern as it was, the tone told him he was on treacherous ground.
    “I told her not to worry about me, that I make my own choices and I know exactly what I’m doing and why.” Sam wasn’t about to dodge the truth.
    “I hope you do,” Ryland said.
    “I had reservations about the Yoshiie family from the moment I met them, especially Azami. From the beginning I thought it was possible she was one of us—a GhostWalker. It wasn’t that I felt the familiar energy, I can’t put my finger on what it was exactly, but I was very uneasy and indicated that to Nico and Kadan as well as sending Lily pictures,” Sam reported.