Camellia replayed the moment in her head. She had a good memory, and she stored data like a computer might. The taller one was restless, but he didn’t appear to be tuned to the network. He seemed as if he was looking into the forest for anything that might be threatening them. The other man, the sick one, had his head down. Both had reacted at the same time just after she had issued her command to the mycelium, the sick one coming to his feet and the taller man turning immediately to help him get on the boulder. Their movements were coordinated. Smooth. Too smooth. That sent up another red flag. Icy fingers of dread raked down her spine.
Neither looked as if they had tapped into her networks, but something had tipped them off to get off the ground. She was absolutely certain of it. That meant... Her breath caught in herthroat. She did her best not to react. That had to mean she wasn’t alone on her own network. Someone else, the man hunting her, the man smelling so faintly of juniper and spruce, had tapped intobothher networks. It was the only way he could have known to warn them. If he was inside her garden, it meant he was capable of being part of the Middlemist Red Camellia network. So much a part of it that he wouldn’t raise alarms.
She didn’t think Whitney had access to the plant. She’d taken the one from his laboratory, and there just weren’t dozens of others lying around. There was a specimen in London, in the Duke’s conservatory, and the other in New Zealand, but would Whitney risk an international incident to steal a plant from either location?
Oh, dear God.Fear clawed at her throat. At her lungs. Would Whitney truly risk an international incident? He was an evil bastard who bought orphan girls to torture and use like lab rats. He’d planned tobreedthem like livestock. Whatwouldn’the risk to get his experiments back?
For a moment she couldn’t breathe. If he had enhanced one of his supersoldiers with the Middlemist Red, that meant the soldier could be right there in her garden with her and she wouldn’t be able to detect his presence.
Camellia tried desperately to calm down so she could think. She had always known it was possible—even probable—that she would be found. She just thought it would be much later. Much, much later. She had an escape plan. More than one. But none of those plans had included escaping from someone with the same talents she possessed. That didn’t mean she couldn’t use what was already in place. She might have to modify a few steps, but she’d always been flexible. And she’d always been lethal. Unlike some of the others, she had no problem defending herself or any innocent.
It was possible she could use the two men sitting on the boulders to distract the hunter. He had warned them. She hadn’t seena lot of real camaraderie among Whitney’s supersoldiers, but that didn’t mean that one or two of them couldn’t actually feel real loyalty for one another. It seemed as if the tall man cared for the sicker one. She had cultivated weapons from the fungi to aid her should she need them. She would hate to use them so soon and tip her hand, but this might be her only chance to get away.
She knew the hunter had no more idea where she was than she knew where he was. He was a phantom, concealing himself in the mist. She was the same. She didn’t dare move now. She remained very still, but she inhaled and exhaled, keeping her breath steady, her heartbeat matching that of the earth. Very softly she initiated a slight tremor in the ground just under the rocks where the two men were seated, throwing them sideways.
You hurt my friends, Jeff will burn down your garden and everything in it.
His voice was low, a sound that moved in her mind so intimately, stroking like a caress on her skin when it should have been an abrasive intrusion. While the words were a clear threat, the delivery and tone made her shiver, igniting every nerve ending in her body. That voice poured into her the way water and energy filled the Middlemist Red’s vein and carried energy and nutrients throughout the plant wherever it was needed. She needed. She’d been empty until that voice filled her.
Camellia tried to trace him using his voice, but he was definitely on the wide network, and he was as tuned to it as she was. It was as if he were a ghost. She puzzled out his threat. He wouldn’t burn down her garden; his friend Jeff would. She guessed Jeff was the taller of the two men sitting on the rocks. The man in her network couldn’t burn down the garden and destroy the plants any more than she could.
Who are you?Three words. A simple enough question. She was positive her position was just as hidden as his was.
She felt a jolt along a thread of the Middlemist Red Camellia network. In the brief moment, all subtleties were gone. Thevibration was decidedly masculine and wholly sexual as it traveled back to her. This was far worse than she’d ever imagined.
Her heart went wild. There was no way he hadn’t felt her reaction, just as she felt the shock of his at the sound of her voice. He hadn’t been any more prepared for her than she had been for him. There was some relief in knowing he hadn’t expected their pairing—and there was absolutely no question that Whitney had paired the two of them. She was reacting to his scent, to the sound of his voice, just as he had reacted to hers.
My name is Jonas Harper. Tell me who you are.
Her stomach reacted, tied into a thousand knots. His voice was powerful, a whisper of command, yet it held a thousand promises. She steeled herself against that lure. She wouldnevergo back. She’d made up her mind she’d rather be dead. She wasn’t going to be trapped by his voice or anything he said to her. He knew who she was, or maybe he needed confirmation on which of the women she was. It was possible he didn’t know who he’d been paired with. That would be like Whitney.
Could Whitney have paired this man with all of the escapees? She fought back a dark, unsettling surge of fury, a knot of negative emotion that was so unlike her.
I will never go back to that place.She counted off seconds before she spoke again and then threw her voice off on different strands to ensure he couldn’t trace the sound back to where she was.There is no way to lie on this network. I am willing to kill you, your friends, burn my garden and die myself.Even as she told him the absolute truth, she knew she had spoken too many words in a row, communicated too long. Better to have given short bursts.
This soldier was too good. Not once had he given himself away, other than that faint scent she found intoxicating. He had infiltrated her garden andbothnetworks, the mycelium and Middlemist Red networks, without giving his presence away, and now wasstalking her using her own system to do so. She couldn’t make amateur mistakes. She’d been out of the game too long.
You can hear that I’m not lying. I didn’t come here seeking you. I had no idea you were here. I felt a threat and started following it to its source. I still feel it. And it isn’t coming from you. Can you feel it too?
There was absolute honesty in his voice. Middlemist Red would know a lie, and so would she. Even so, she wasn’t prepared to trust him. She was still feeling as if she was being hunted, and he was here. He had bypassed all her security measures, all her sentries, traps and alarms. Who knew what else he could do?
Did Whitney send you?
Absolutely not. I don’t work for Whitney. He did enhance me. I work for the United States government. I’m a member of GhostWalker Team One, the first unit he experimented on. You have to be one of the women who escaped when the Nortons and Team Two went after Marigold. They hoped to get Whitney at that time, but he managed to evade them.
Camellia was silent while she processed what he’d said. Marigold had been the last woman to leave the compound, and she’d left with Ken Norton. Camellia had lost track of her. The plan had been for all of them to go in different directions. They were to rendezvous at one point where they had been stashing money collectively after every mission they went on. The money was to be divided evenly, and they would all go their separate ways to make it more difficult for Whitney’s soldiers to track them.
If you truly are not here for me, then go away. Leave me alone.
This time he was the silent one. Her heart thudded. Did she really want him to leave? He was the first human being she’d talked to in so long. She wanted to see him. Put a face to that smoky voice. She tried to imagine what he looked like and couldn’t. She kept herself very still, holding her breath, waiting. Needing. It was just that she didn’t know how to trust.
Do you feel the threat?
She let air out slowly. It was there. The feeling of being hunted.Yes. It is vague. I thought it was you, but you’re close. If you’re the one making me feel as if I’m threatened, I would think...She trailed off. The feeling would be much more intense. Jonas wasn’t the impending threat, but he was definitely trouble.
There are women and children living in the GhostWalker compounds farther down the mountain. I believe you know some of them. Would you leave them to Whitney when you clearly could help them?
She pressed the heel of her hand to her forehead. Of course she wouldn’t do that.If the threat is to children, I would aid them, but I would do it my way. I am not going to allow you to draw me into the open when you could...Again, she trailed off. What did she expect him to do? She believed Whitney hadn’t sent him. He couldn’t lie to her, not when he was using the Middlemist Red Camellia network.
