Murder Game (GhostWalkers, #7)(120)

“I don’t trust myself. Just do it now. It’s a relief. I don’t want to hurt anyone else. I hit my wife. Damn it, I hit her, with my fist. I could hear myself screaming to stop, but I couldn’t. And her face, when she looked at me . . .” He closed his eyes. “Just do it, man.”

“I want to have you transported to a hospital. A doctor will try to undo or counteract the damage done with the genetic enhancement. Once I terminate the man pulling your strings, the pressure as well as the voices in your head should be gone. We can’t get back the man you killed, but you can do your best to make up for it. You were a good soldier. The papers in this packet say you still are. As far as your wife and child will know you are on a mission. If you succeed, you’ll come back to them, but you’ll remain under the general’s command and serve your country when needed. If you don’t succeed, you will be terminated immediately and you will be buried with full military honors. Your wife and child will never know what happened to you and will receive your insurance benefits as befitting the widow and family of a fallen soldier.”

“Why would you do that for me?” Delaney asked suspiciously.

“Because I’ve had to kill four people today and I’ll kill four more by tomorrow morning. You’re worth saving, and I don’t want to have to look into your wife’s eyes and know I didn’t try. I don’t want to have to go home to my woman and have her know I didn’t try. I signed on for psychic enhancement, but no one asked my permission for genetic enhancement. Whatever happened to you could just as easily have happened to me.”

“In return for this offer, what do I have to do?” Delaney sounded wary. He was a soldier, Special Forces, and his every instinct would be to keep information to himself.

“You have to do exactly what I laid out for you. I don’t need you to tell me anything about how you got into this or who did it with you. We’ll take you to a hospital at an undisclosed location. You will be allowed one phone call to your wife where you will tell her you were called up for a special mission you can’t talk about. Tell her you love her and to wait for you, to give you one more chance. Let her know you’ll probably be gone several months. Cooperate with the doctor. I won’t lie to you: We don’t know how to undo the genetic enhancements; the doctor will probably have to counteract them in some way. I have no guarantee for you other than my word as a fellow GhostWalker that I’m telling you the truth.”

Tom Delaney turned his face away, but not before Kadan saw him choking with emotion. “Let’s do it then,” the soldier said gruffly. “And if it doesn’t work, promise me you won’t let me leave that place alive.”

“You have my word on that.” Kadan motioned him to stand and turn around, indicating that he put his hands behind his back. “It’s safer for you. You’ll have guns on you all the way to the transport vehicle. They’ll knock you out so the voices can’t reach you.”

Tom Delaney stood quietly while Kadan put handcuffs on him. “Look man. I know I don’t deserve it, but if something goes wrong, tell my wife I really loved her. She has to know I really love her and my boy.”

“I’ll take care of them. You have my word.”

Kadan led him back toward the top of the hill, where Ryland had a van ready. Ryland gave Delaney no time to change his mind or think about things; he knocked him out with one swift shot of the air syringe.

“The puppet master is a dreamwalker. You’re certain he can’t get to Delaney that way?” Kadan asked.

Ryland shrugged as he watched the van head out toward the waiting plane that would take Delaney to the small up-to-date facility Lily had built in the mountains of Montana. “It’s Nico’s concoction and he says no dreamwalker can get past that barricade.”

“Five down,” Kadan said and climbed into the SUV.





Jason Sturges, aka Bull, weaved his way cautiously through the animal pens, making his way in the dark along the narrow paths between fences. The steers pawed at the ground and bellowed occasionally, restless and distressed over the unfamiliar scents and the intruding shadows flitting through their territory. A few stomped their feet and pushed against the fences, rattling the boards with their heavy weight.

Bull smiled and crouched a little lower, listening to the waves of restless cattle. The man who was trying to blackmail him was somewhere near the lower fences. He could tell by the way the curious cattle swung their heads. He knew animals and he knew how to fight. Confident, and rather amused, he inched toward the lower pens where the bulls were kept.

Come alone, the voice had whispered hoarsely on the telephone. Hell yeah, he’d come alone. Maybe he should have invited a couple of his teammates to come along for the fun, but sometimes a man just needed to have his own good time. He’d have bragging rights after he killed his blackmailer. Anyone dumb enough to mess with a bull deserved the horns. Inwardly he laughed at his own joke and kept pressing forward, following the call of the cattle.

“Gator’s directing the cattle,” Nico reported into Kadan’s ear. “He’s herding Bull your way. I can’t always get a clear shot. He’s got a lot of cover.”

“Tell Gator to keep him moving. I want him in motion at all times so he’s easier to spot.”

The report on Bull had been astonishing. As a soldier, he had a good reputation, was reputed to be excellent at his job, and had no damaging reports in his file. As crazy as the man was, Kadan had expected to find a few rumors floating, but Bull was either lucky or good, and Kadan had the feeling he was just that good. Flame had uncovered an alarming pattern of deaths on Bull’s team. Nearly every mission a man was lost. His team had the highest loss rate of any team in the service, yet no one had questioned that each downed man was a legitimately explained death.