Street Game (GhostWalkers, #8)(90)

“I’d prefer that you didn’t, if I get a vote,” Paul agreed, not looking up from Ethan’s bloody body.

Mack jerked his arm away from Kane, but holstered his weapon and stalked into the kitchen. He couldn’t look at Jaimie again. Ethan had taken a bad hit. He’d been so certain he could get his men out clean. Maybe he was angrier at himself than at Sergeant Major. “Where’s Javier?”

Marc handed him a cup of coffee. “Where do you think? He prefers computers to people. He’s tracking our wannabe Bond.”

“They have the pictures of Griffen’s shadows? All three of them? I want that woman’s ID,” Mack snapped.

Griffen came up behind him. Marc immediately left the area and busied himself watching the bay from the windows.

“I’m sorry, Mack,” Griffen said quietly. “I didn’t know how to handle it. I realized Whitney was out of his mind when I went to tour one his compounds. I was with Senator Romney and Brigadier General Tommy Chilton and Colonel Wilford. They didn’t share my views of the facility at all, at least not Romney and Chilton; Colonel Wilford was quiet, didn’t say much at all. As we walked through that hellhole, I felt like I was in an alternate reality. Paul had already filled out the papers and was being processed into the program. I knew his talent was rare and that if Whitney realized what he could do, he’d never leave that compound alive. Romney and Chilton wield a great deal of power. Chilton has the president’s ear. I kept my mouth shut and got out of there alive, although I think Whitney was suspicious.”

“You should have come to me.”

“The day after I visited the compound, I was hit by a car right outside of my hotel. It was no accident. I was out jogging and the car was waiting for me. I think that must have been when they planted the tracking devices in my hip and side.” He rubbed the spots as if they ached. “I woke up in Whitney’s hospital. Oh, he was very gracious. Romney and the general were solicitous. The colonel was very quiet and upset, but I knew I’d been warned.”

“You should have come to me then,” Mack repeated and poured a cup of coffee and handed it to Sergeant Major.

“You sound like a broken record. I answer to the colonel. He answers to the brigadier general. He goes to the president. Who else can I go to, Mack?”

“Me. You come to me.”

“And what are you going to do?”

Mack’s smile was mean. “I’m going to kill the sons of bitches.”

“You don’t know for certain it’s them. I don’t know,” Griffen objected. “Don’t you think I thought of that? They have never once communicated with me. I have no proof. Just the damn bugs. I had to utilize the encryption program to communicate with Paul, and anything secure I’m working on can’t be done in my office.”

“Who set up Kane and Brian? Was it Whitney?”

“The orders for the mission came directly from Colonel Wilford, as most of the missions do, but his orders come from above. The only thing different was he requested them by name. I had my suspicions the moment he requested them. I had turned over all the evidence the men had gathered against Whitney against my better judgment.” He looked directly at Mack for the first time and there was shame in his eyes. “Did they make copies?”

“If they did, they didn’t inform me.”

“I tried warning you, Mack. I said things to make you as uneasy as possible.”

“I must have picked up on it without knowing it, but you should have just told me. You could have used Paul’s e-mail.”

“I couldn’t be certain that everyone on your team was clean, not with Paul’s life at stake.”

“They threatened him?”

“When I woke up in the hospital, Whitney was there with Romney and Chilton and they were all talking, consoling me, telling me I was going to be all right. And they said how easily these things happen and thank God it hadn’t been Paul, because no one wants to outlive their child. I took it as a warning.”

“Damn it, Sergeant Major, you should have come to me. You trusted me with your son. You should have trusted me to get you out of it.”

“You’re a loose cannon sometimes, Mack,” Griffen said. “No one, not even me, can predict how you’ll act in any given situation. You have a reputation for charging hell with a bucket of water.”

Mack shook his head and went back over to Ethan, Griffen following. “Maybe, but I’d put the fire out. I always have a plan.”

“They’ll know your team has me,” Griffen pointed out. “That makes all of you sitting ducks. You’ll get orders to go to the Congo or worse.”

“Not if they’re dead. We just need the proof of who the man is pulling the strings. We get in and get out.” Mack walked around the bed, inspecting the damage done to Ethan. He put his hand on Ethan’s shoulder, his touch gentle, at odds with his commanding tone. “Give me the word, kid,” he ordered Paul. “I’m getting a little worried and we all know that makes me cranky.”

Paul flexed his fingers and sagged back onto the bed, slumping, his head down. There was a film of sweat on his forehead and his eyes were sunken in. He looked pale. “Get me some water, please.”

Marc handed him a glass and the team gathered around him, waiting while he downed the water. “Maybe you should lie down,” Marc suggested, one hand on Paul’s shoulder to steady him.