Deadly Game (GhostWalkers, #5)(45)

I know you will. She tried to smile at him, but her eyes closed and she went limp.

“Damn it! I need more time. Jack, get over here,” Lily ordered. “We didn’t get enough of the antidote in.”

“Talk to me, Lily,” Ken snapped. “Tell me what’s happening.”

“She’s crashing!” Lily’s voice was tight. “Jack!”

Jack straddled Mari and began CPR while Lily grabbed a syringe with a very long and wicked-looking needle from the surgical tray.

“Open her shirt, Jack,” Lily instructed. She sounded calm and controlled.

She took Jack’s place, sitting on top of Mari, driving the needle through the chest wall straight into the heart to administer the stimulant.

Ken’s stomach lurched. For a moment there was silence. He heard the ticking of a clock. Lily’s breath. Someone shuffling their feet. Beside him, Mari wheezed, drawing in a hard lungful of air, her eyes flying open, terror on her face, her hand gripping his wrist as if her life depended on the contact, and then she went limp again.

Lily bent over her, feeling for her pulse, listening to her heart. “She’s back. Get the antidote in her and as much blood as we can. We may need you before this thing is over, Jack.”

While she worked on Mari, Lily kept glancing at Ken. “You said you thought you had a way to stop him. As long as he’s allowed to keep up his experiments, none of us are safe. Do you really have a plan?”

“I can control people’s actions with my mind,” Ken said, his gaze shifting toward his brother to catch the look of shock he knew would be there. Don’t admit you can do the same thing. You have Briony and the babies to think about.

“That’s not possible.” Lily stepped back, shaking her head, looking at him with sudden fear in her eyes. “He can’t have managed to find a way to do that.”

“You knew he was trying?” Ryland asked his wife gently. He reached for her, drew her into his arms, and held her, tenderness evident on his face as he tried to comfort her. Cleaning up after her father was taking a terrible toll.

“Of course. That would be the ultimate triumph, wouldn’t it?” She pulled away from her husband to go back to working on Mari, although her face was very pale. “There were many arguments on the subject. My father believed mind control was possible and could be used for a multitude of purposes. He tried to sell the idea that mind control could be used to make foreign leaders see the light, even on troublesome teens when their parents couldn’t get them to cooperate.”

“You argued often with him about it, or someone else did?” Ken asked.

“I argued against it, but actually, a couple of his friends were adamant that he shouldn’t try to develop mind control. Jacob Abrams often argued against it. I think he was worried about my father having control of that kind of power. People would literally be puppets in his control. No one would be able to stand against him. Jacob didn’t like the idea at all, and they would often get into a really heated argument if the subject came up. I was terrified he might actually find a way to do it.”

“He didn’t. I had the ability naturally and developed it myself.”

She frowned at Ken. “When did you know you could do that?”

He shrugged and reached over, trying to look casual as he pulled the edges of Mari’s shirt closed. He hated her being exposed to everyone. “I’ve been able to do it as long as I can remember. When I was a kid I used it mostly on teachers and foster parents, but my control wasn’t all that reliable.” He grimaced. “Eventually I was able to gain control over it, although it requires complete concentration and if used for a prolonged length of time, or for an intricate task, I’m left completely incapacitated. Also I can’t use it on more than one person at a time, or anything really significant, without huge repercussions. I can get guards to look the other way, but all of us have that ability to influence. Real mind control leaves me useless for hours.”

“Why isn’t it in your file? You didn’t test out for that ability.”

“I figured it best to hold some things back. Put it in my file now as if you’ve just discovered it. I’m sure Whitney’s very interested in both Jack and me right now, and he won’t be able to resist looking if he sees you’ve been pulling us up on the computer. You said he monitors your work, but doesn’t realize you’re aware of it,” Ken said. His knuckles lingered along the swell of Mari’s breast as he held the shirt closed. “Put it in there how you’ve studied both of us and how it’s strange that I’m capable of mind control but Jack’s not, and you need to further evaluate us. We can figure out a place for him to grab me, without endangering anyone else.”

“No.” Jack said the single word in a low tone that spoke volumes. “I won’t let you set yourself up so this bastard can grab you. It’s not happening, Ken.”

“We can trap him, Jack. He’ll come out into the open for me.”

“Lily, don’t listen to him,” Jack cautioned. “He’s a little nutty right now. Meeting Mari has shaken him up and he’s in martyr mode. I’m not allowing it, and anyone trying to help him is going to be in trouble.”

Lily continued to work on Mari, wiping her face with a cold cloth, adding another bag of the yellow liquid, and checking the amount of blood Ken had given her. Seeing that Ken couldn’t let go of Mari’s shirt, she tugged up a thin sheet to add to her patient’s privacy while Logan removed the needle from Ken’s arm.