Conspiracy Game (GhostWalkers, #4)(39)

“We need a way to extract Jack. If we warn her… ”

“So you’re using her as bait.” Flame’s head snapped up, her eyes stormy. “Is that what we are to you, Kadan? Is that what she is? Something to use so you can get your GhostWalker back?”

Gator put a restraining hand on her arm, but she shrugged it off, glaring at the other man across the table.

Kadan shrugged with his usual calm. “We’re all GhostWalkers, Flame. Neither Norton nor Briony is expendable as far as I’m concerned. If Whitney has targeted Briony, he’ll eventually try to reacquire her. Jack Norton is her best bet for protection. I’m not willing to give up either one of them. Even if we did manage to send word to Kinshasa, and the chance of getting there before this is over is not good, why would she even believe us?”

“But she isn’t an anchor?” Ian asked.

Lily shook her head. “No, and it’s surprising that she’s managed to exist in the environment she has. My father has written copious notes about her ability to withstand pain and carry out her mission. In this case, performing with her family in front of so many people. She’s a strong telepath as are both Jack and Ken Norton. She has the same abilities that both of them have.”

“Which are?” Kadan prompted.

“Which brings us back to mosquitoes,” Lily said. “Mosquitoes can sense carbon dioxide and lactic acid up to one hundred feet away. When we breathe, humans, along with other mammals and even birds, give off these gases. The chemicals in sweat also attract mosquitoes.”

“Are you saying Jack and this woman, Briony, can do that as well? Scent people by breathing and sweat?” Ian asked.

“Yes. Absolutely they can. They were born with the same olfactory system in their noses, as we all were. Mosquitoes have receptors that allow them to use that system efficiently. Briony and Jack both have receptors.” A small smile escaped. “Although their receptors are not in antennae. Mosquitoes also have heat sensors, as do Briony and Jack. And last, but not least, mosquitoes have visual sensors.”

“I’m seeing a pattern here.” Ian flashed a grin around the room. “No wonder the man is good in the jungle. He can just home in on his targets.”

“Actually you’re right, he can. He also has the ability to change his skin color to match his surroundings.”

“Like a chameleon?” Ian asked.

“Contrary to popular belief, chameleons can’t display limitless colors and do not change colors in a camouflage response to their surroundings. Their skin changes in response to temperature, light, and mood,” Lily explained. “The hormones that control the melanin-containing cells can vary in concentration over the chameleon’s body, producing elaborate colored patterns. Some patterns are good camouflage, while other patterns are more showy stripes or spots in contrasting colors that signal the chameleon’s mood.”

“But chameleons don’t have the same skin we do,” Kadan pointed out. “So far, Whitney hasn’t introduced any alien DNA into us, has he?”

“A chameleon has four layers of skin. The outside layer has both red and yellow color cells. Inside that layer are two more layers, both reflecting light, one blue and one white. The inner layer is complicated and contains pigment granules called melonophore cells. The melonophore has dark brown pigment called melanin.”

“The same stuff that colors human skin brown or black?” Ian asked.

“Exactly the same stuff,” Lily acknowledged. “Humans, by the way, also have red and yellow color cells. So if you could independently and precisely control the hormone levels for each of the melanin-containing cells, you could create a wide variety of color patterns within the ranges allowed by multiple-color cell layers.”

“In a human? How could you do that?” Kadan asked.

“Through a distributed network of nano-computers associated with the melanin-containing cells: one such nano-computer.”

Ian shoved a hand through his red hair. “I hate it when you start talking like this. It makes me feel stupid.”

“Each nano-computer is a few hundred molecules in size, and its primary purpose is to regulate the hormone level of the melanin-containing cell with which it’s associated. It has one more function—something like a sperm cell, if injected into the bloodstream, it will find its way to a melanin-containing cell that currently doesn’t have a ‘nano-computer’ and latch on to it.”

Flame frowned. “So you’re saying the idea is to inject a zillion of these into the bloodstream, and they will sort themselves out into a distributed computing network, one nano-computer per melanin-containing cell? What controls them?”

“The nano-computers change the hormone level they are allowing—and hence the colors those color cells are displaying—when they are exposed to a magnetic field of a certain strength.”

Logan burst out with “Damn it, Lily, are you sure?”

She nodded. “Jack and Ken Norton have extensive files. They’re very strong telepaths as well as having many other talents on a lesser level. Both can use telekinesis. Psychokinesis, more commonly referred to as telekinesis, is the ability to move things or otherwise affect the property of things with the power of the mind. Of all psychic abilities, true telekinesis is the rarest—and the most difficult to control. I know because I have some small talent—nothing like theirs. And I believe Briony must have this talent as well. Not only did both men test strong in that area, they were enhanced even further. They’ve apparently had the ability to communicate telepathically from the time they were toddlers.”