Predatory Game (24 page)

She took no weapons, but she coated her hands with a solution to fill in all the lines of her palms and fingers, making them perfectly smooth, so she left behind no prints or cells, but could still make skin-to-skin contact. It was a miracle invention, one of Whitney’s finest, and yet he hadn’t turned it over to the government. The only covert use for it seemed to be his own. Originally she’d stolen several bottles with the idea that she might send it anonymously to a research center, hoping they’d duplicate it, but it was impossible to know which facilities he was associated with.

Saber wasn’t an anchor, so death, particularly a brutal one, had debilitating repercussions on her. She couldn’t afford to pass out on the job, so she added a small vial of liquid to her armament. If she killed again tonight, she’d just have to take the drug and hope it held until she could be alone somewhere safe.

She had to get through Jess’s security to the outside without him becoming aware that she was gone. He was in his office with his friend Logan, looking at something he didn’t want her to see. She’d have to spot his GhostWalkers, the ones she was certain were out there, guarding the house and Jess. They couldn’t see her leaving or returning.

She pushed open the attic door and leapt, catching the frame and swinging up. She carefully closed the door behind her, making certain it sat perfectly so it appeared undisturbed. She’d tested this route a hundred times, so she could make her way in the dark through the space to the dormer where the ventilation grill was. She followed the heating duct, avoiding a misstep as well as insulation, keeping herself as light as possible as she counted the steps to the small opening.

The louvered air vent was a twelve-inch square. She had already prepared the grill, just in case, loosening all the screws with the exception of one. She had her emergency pack stashed there along with her tools. Quickly she took out the last tight screw and simply waited there in the dark, holding the louvers while she felt the night.

There was someone on the roof. Not the enemy—at least not Jess’s enemy. Ken Norton lay up there with a rifle in his hands. Mari had to be close. Again, Saber ignored the oppressive darkness and the way it made her feel until she found Mari’s position. There was no sound or movement, neither GhostWalker gave themselves away; instead it was more of a leap in the energy, as if power was alive and lay on the rooftop.

The dormer was difficult to see from the roof itself, and neither GhostWalker had any reason to be looking as long as she moved at a snail’s pace and didn’t draw their attention. Saber carefully pulled the grill inside, taking care not to scrape it against the frame. Now came the tricky part. She had to slip through the small space to the outside without getting caught.

Movement always drew the eye and GhostWalkers had an unerring sixth sense. With excruciating patience, Saber slipped out of the attic into the open air. When she was dangling just a foot above the steeper roofline, she reached in with one hand and pulled the louvers back in position. Only a very sharp eye would spot that the air vent was slightly crooked. She let go and dropped into a crouch, her small feet making no noise as she landed.

She went still once more and waited, knowing those first few moments were the most crucial. The special clothing from her field pack would reflect her surroundings so that she appeared to fade into them. It was one small trick out of many that helped to make her invisible. She kept her energy as low as possible, changing her biorhythm so that she would give very little away to alert Ken and Mari to another’s presence.

She knew the first moment they both became suspicious. Their energy spiked as adrenaline rushed. She continued to stay still, to breathe evenly and keep her heart slow and steady, even as she automatically stretched out her rhythm to include them. She could find a heartbeat in close proximity and work with it, even without touch, but it wasn’t as easy or accurate. She couldn’t disrupt the rhythm, but she could soothe and calm.

She had previously touched both individuals and already committed their rhythms to memory. Each person’s bioelectric activity was unique even in a reversal phase. Saber had a finely honed electrical-magnetic pulse when she wanted to tap into the field her body generated. It was so strong, she had to keep her biorhythm very low indoors and around others to keep from disrupting sensitive equipment, both human and man-made.

The wave was easy enough to disrupt if she was touching her target, but she could still send pulses to coax the rhythm in a direction she wanted it to go. The key was keeping her touch so light it appeared to be natural. She couldn’t allow energy to rise around her, giving her presence away to the enhanced psychic soldier.

She waited until both Ken and Mari settled back into their normal rhythms, and then she began to make her way over the roof, threading the needle between the two GhostWalkers. She had trained against enhanced soldiers for years, moving through secured areas where cameras, motion detectors, and just about every technologic advance in security had been used against her. The last line of defense had been dogs and enhanced soldiers under orders to shoot to kill.

She didn’t flinch as she eased past Mari, staying downwind, keeping her rhythm low so as not to set off natural alarms. She was so close she could have reached out and touched Mari’s leg as she slipped by. She eased over the edge of the roof to the attached garage. If she could have chosen a different way she would have, but it was the only safe way down without risking noise. Even soft sound carried at night and out where Jess’s house was located, there was little traffic and no other houses.

She had to get off the roof as soon as possible. Ken prowled the area, quartering every inch repeatedly. He might not sense her, but his radar was extremely sensitive and either he was the most thorough guard in the world, or he was edgier than she’d like. She barely made it over the gutters before he came up on her. Her heart nearly stopped beating.

The surge of adrenaline was almost her undoing. She fought to control her body’s reaction as she dangled in the air. The tip of Ken’s shoe touched her fingers as he stood, surveying the wooded area across from the Calhoun estate. She hung directly under him, her body blending in with the shadows of the garage, and she prayed Mari wasn’t looking too closely at her husband.

Only when he moved to the other side did she allow herself a small breath of relief as she dropped to the ground. She landed in a crouch, staying low and still, while she “felt” the night around her. Navigating through enemy lines without detection required infinite patience, and over the years, Saber had become good at waiting.

She stretched out onto the open ground and crossed with painstaking slowness, like a snail, crawling with her elbows and toes until she came to the high fence. She crouched at its highest point, counting slowly in her head. This was where she’d be most vulnerable, although because she’d chosen the least likely point of entry, the chances were very low that someone would be focusing attention there at that precise moment. Luck sometimes really was the downfall of a great assassin.

The highest point of the fence was on the most open ground. Few would attempt entry there because they could be seen easily and the fence was difficult to climb. She had no intention of doing so. Behind the low-lying shrubs, she lay in the dirt and painstakingly dug a small depression. Using enhanced strength, she bent the bottom of the fence just a few inches so she could wiggle through. She had to flatten her body as best she could, all the while moving at a snail’s pace so as not to draw Ken’s or Mari’s eye. It would be easy enough to shove the dirt back in place and straighten the few inches of fencing when she returned, and no one would ever suspect she had left the estate.

Once outside the fence, she slipped into the woods and made her way in silence. There was little moonlight, which helped. The area was overgrown with bushes and berries and it would be much more difficult to be spotted.

She let her own rhythm slip away from her mind, concentrating on finding another’s. Somewhere out there someone was watching Jess’s house and they were emitting energy. In that energy she felt a threat. Her psychic abilities were strong when it came to reading energy and auras. She couldn’t read thoughts the way some of the other women had been able to do through touch, but she could feel danger miles away. As she made her way through the woods, the impression of a threat increased significantly.

Saber had to factor in the chance that Ken or Mari would become aware of the intruder and come to investigate, and that meant she needed to be on the alert every moment. She smelled cigarette smoke and slowed her pace, going low to the ground as she advanced on the car hidden in the bushes just off a narrow dirt road.

The vehicle was parked behind several very bushy plants. It was impossible to see from the road, and certainly not from Jess’s house, which meant that whoever was watching couldn’t be in the car. Saber stayed still, waiting for a sound, anything, to tell her where the watcher was positioned.

The breeze shifted slightly. She wrinkled her nose. Cigarette smoke and perfume—and she recognized the perfume.
Chaleen.

Saber stayed still, yards from the vehicle, breathing deep to keep her body relaxed and her energy output low. The idea that Jess’s former girlfriend was spying on him infuriated her, but she couldn’t afford to blow her cover with a surge of adrenaline that would bring both Ken and Mari running.

Chaleen was standing on a large rock beside a tree. She was close enough that at first glance one might mistake her for part of the foliage. She wore a dark navy suit and, incredibly, high heels. Her shoes looked absurd there in the woods. She held a pair of binoculars up to her eyes and was studying Jess’s home, a faint frown on her face.

With a little sigh of impatience, she dropped the binoculars, allowing them to hang by the strap around her neck, and stepped off the rock, careful not to ruin her heels. Snapping open her cell phone, she walked toward the more open area of the dirt road in an attempt to pick up a signal. All the while, she continued watching the house.

As she put the phone to her ear, her jacket parted, revealing the shoulder holster and gun beneath her arm. She was wearing slim trousers, and when she took a step, the material pulled just enough to give her hold-out gun away as well. Saber would have bet she had another strapped to the back of her waist, right where the jacket was loose enough to conceal it.

Chaleen began to pace while she talked into the phone, her agitation clear. The energy build-up around her was doubling. Ken and Mari would feel the threat and come looking. It was now or never.

“I’m telling you, we’ll never learn anything this way. It’s impossible. Do you think Jess is just going to spill his guts to an old girlfriend? One who betrayed him? He’s a smart man. You continually underestimate him.”

Saber crawled through the brush, stalking the enemy. Chaleen had already betrayed Jess once. She wasn’t going to get an opportunity to do it twice. Saber moved her body within striking distance, placing herself in Chaleen’s path. She needed Chaleen to take another step and stop. Already Saber began to tune her body’s rhythm to her adversary’s. The heart, the ebb and flow of blood, the steady pulse—those things became her world. A symphony of sound, the music playing inside of her, etching notes onto her brain where she could clearly see the important pattern and how best to gently interrupt it.

Chaleen sighed and took another step, once more stopping to maintain the weak signal. “Does it matter? He has a girlfriend. Seduction didn’t work before and it isn’t going to work now. Let me tell you something. Not all men can be seduced into betraying their country. You should have learned that when he was captured and tortured. He wouldn’t give up the people he was protecting, not even when he lost his legs. No. Absolutely not. Yes, I believe Jess Calhoun is an operative, absolutely, but he isn’t one you can use. Accept it and move on, damn it.”

Saber curled her palm around Chaleen’s ankle without actually touching it. She could feel the heat now. The life. The blood moving and the electricity as the commands of the brain were carried out. With infinite patience she placed the tips of her fingers over the pulse. Light. So light as to be nonexistent.

Saber closed her eyes and absorbed the rhythm, the steady beat and the flow of blood through arteries and veins. She let out her breath at the exact moment that Chaleen did, allowing air to rush through her lungs. For a moment she experienced that strange euphoria that came with blending body rhythms. Sharing the same skin, the same breath, the same heartbeat was unique and incredible, an indescribable feeling. The most difficult moment came with that connection. She couldn’t react to the exhilaration. She had to keep that same steady beat so that they were one being.

“I did go see him, but there was no chance to get into his office. I’ve observed members of his team here, but they’re friends of his.”

Although her concentration was on Chaleen, Saber’s warning system began to shriek at her. There was no sound. GhostWalkers rarely gave themselves away with noise, but the energy coming toward her was very aggressive and it was coming fast. Time was running out. It was now or never.

Saber introduced the smallest blip in the steady rhythm. Chaleen reacted by pressing her hand to her chest.

“Look, I’m telling you this is a waste of time. Jess Calhoun is a patriot and he’s given most of his life to his country. I’ll be damned if I’m a party to any of this. We’re supposed to be on the same side, Karl.”

Saber closed her eyes, allowing her breath to escape. Chaleen might be an operative for someone, but she wasn’t trying to kill Jess. She wasn’t enhanced and there was no way Saber could confirm a connection to Whitney. Slowly, with tremendous care, she lifted her fingers from Chaleen’s ankle. The heart wouldn’t seize, would remain beating normally, and Chaleen would never know just how close to death she’d been.

“I suggest you put your hands where I can see them,” Ken Norton said, his voice low, but carrying a threat that sent a shiver down Saber’s spine.