GhostWalkers 10 - Samurai Game

cryptic and difficult. He encodes everything. The man is paranoid.”
    “Don’t try to lead me off the subject. That was sheer lunacy testing an unknown drug on yourself and you damn well know it.”
    She leaned toward Ryland. “Fortunately, I don’t have anyone else to answer to,” she replied mildly, letting him know she wasn’t under his command.
    “Your brothers didn’t object?”
    “We don’t boss one another. I told them what I was doing and what to do if anything should go wrong. They didn’t like it any more than you did, but the second-generation Zenith proved to be a miracle drug when one needs it.”
    “You own a satellite company; why would you need a drug like Zenith?” Ryland asked. Sam very carefully slid his thumb across her inner wrist in a caress, warning her at the same time. Ryland was no one’s dummy. His carefully worded questions were designed to trip her up, casually asked or not.
    “We go into dangerous countries and often must protect ourselves. Other governments use different methods to get what they want—and they want my brother’s software and the high-resolution satellite with Eiji’s lens. Our work is very unpredictable, especially if we decide against selling to a corporation or country who believes they have a right to our equipment.”
    Sam was astonished at her absolute composure. He knew he shouldn’t be; she’d shown nerves of steel during the fight in the forest, and from the moment Ryland had begun interrogating her, she had been poised and collected. She even flashed her serene smile at Ryland, as if he wasn’t quite bright and he should have figured out the answer without bothering her with such an obvious question.
    “You always act as your brother’s bodyguard?” Ryland asked.
    “Yes. Eiji insists as well, although, like Daiki, he’s far too valuable to the company. I like to think I’m as important as my two partners, but sadly, I don’t contribute the way they do. I’m the most expendable.”
    Sam’s fingers tightened around her wrist in protest. Her tone told him she was telling him the absolute truth as she saw it.
    “Our company is small, but the people working for us are ours. They depend on us for their livelihood. That means Daiki and Eiji must continue to keep moving us forward. Both are innovative and they have amazing ideas for the future.”
    Ryland leaned back in his seat and regarded her steadily. “How do you know that your people can be trusted? You believe in them, I can see that, but it would be impossible to ensure that more than a tight circle of people would be loyal.”
    Azami shook her head. “None of my people would betray us. I would trust them with my life.”
    “Would you trust them with your brother’s lives?”
    For the first time she hesitated. “I don’t trust anyone withthe lives of my brothers,” she whispered. “They are all I have.”
    Sam felt rather than heard that uncertain note in her voice—Thorn’s voice. The child who had been so carelessly thrown away by Whitney.
    That is no longer the truth. You have me whether or not you have accepted me. I will always come for you, honey. I will be your family.
Sam found it strange that things he’d
never
say out loud, he was perfectly fine with sending into her mind. There was an intimacy that transcended embarrassment when sharing the same mind.
I mean what I say, Azami. You will always be able to count on me.
    Sure, it was too fast. He knew Ryland was trying to keep him from falling, tumbling off a high cliff into a deep abyss, but Sam had already willingly stepped off the cliff and he had no desire to go back. She was worth the fall. If, in the end, she couldn’t make that commitment to him and she shattered his heart—well, he knew the cost before he’d made the jump.
    Azami shook her head. Even that slight movement was graceful, all that silky hair sliding around her like a halo while long strands fell artfully down the back of her slender neck.
    Ryland sighed loudly. “This is getting us nowhere. No orders have come down to the effect of our unit—and specifically Sam—heading to the Congo. The general gives me leeway to pick my own team best suited for a mission. I know their specific psychic skills. We no longer document when a skill shows itself. Lily develops exercises to strengthen them and as a team we practice drills, but even the general doesn’t have specific knowledge of what we do. It would be extremely unusual for the general to