“A reason? I lived alone, giving up my need for a family in order to keep from having to take anyone’s crap ever again. What would be your reason when you have so much power, Angel? Especially all of you combined?”
She was careful to keep her tone curious. Shewascurious. Even a little shocked. Angel seemed intelligent. Why would he follow Abrams when he wouldn’t need to do so?
“Abrams has money and power. Not only that, Camellia, but he belongs to a small consortium that pretty much rules the world. They have a hand in influencing the world’s markets. They can take down governments, all behind the scenes, of course. If we control Abrams, we have control of that.”
Camellia’s stomach did a hard somersault. “Shaker’s voice.”
Angel nodded. “Shaker takes a lot of shit from some of the others. We keep our circle tight so there’s no chance of it getting out that Shaker controls Abrams. He only uses his ability when it’s in our interests. We move pieces around on the board, making certain the GhostWalkers are protected when they would have been left wide open. That sort of thing. We tried to shut down some of Whitney’s worst experiments. Abrams would be so angry at Whitney, not even realizing he was the one behind the orders.” There was amusement in Angel’s voice.
“Shaker persuaded Abrams to send you here with the mercenaries. Why would you give all that up for revenge? You know by coming here, you would lose everything. You could never go back.”
“JonasmurderedOliver and they did nothing,” Shaker snapped, for the first time speaking directly to her. “I knew Oliver wasunstable. When I heard he died, I accepted his death, but then this report came in, and it was disgusting to me that an entire team betrayed his trust. His best friend betrayed his trust. I’m his brother. Was I going to do the same? Not on your life.”
“I get what you’re saying. I do. If I believed this one report rather than talking to Ryland Miller myself and asking him questions, then I might be out for revenge...”
“Justice,” Shaker said. “It isn’t the same.”
“Revenge if you’re willing to murder innocents, Shaker,” Camellia pointed out. “What does killing children have to do with what you believe happened to your brother? I don’t understand that at all.”
“Ryland Miller has to suffer.”
“Yet he’ll be dead and his wife and child alive,” Camellia said. “And what about Team Two? They had nothing at all to do with it. Why include them?”
“They’ll hunt us,” Angel answered. “You have to be with us, Camellia. This is your chance. You can’t want to be with him, knowing what he did. Jonas Harper is a monster.”
“You’re going off one report that makes no sense. Those are men of honor, and yet not one of them behaved honorably, according to the story you just told. Before all of you throw away your lives like this, shouldn’t you investigate what happened a little bit more? Don’t you owe it to yourselves?” Camellia felt as if she was pleading for all of their lives. For their honor as well. “Angel, you and Shaker seem like good men. You have to know this isn’t the right thing to do. At least take a little more time and make sure you’re right.”
Jeff groaned again.How could they have gotten ahold of my nightmare? I didn’t talk to a shrink about it. I didn’t even talk to Lily about it, not even when she asked me.
I remember when you weren’t sleeping,Kyle said.I asked you about it.
We talked,Jonas said.You told me you were having nightmares and what they were about. You don’t have any reason to feel as if any of this is your fault.
You saved my life that day, Jonas. He was your friend. You loved him like a brother. If you hadn’t been there, I’d be dead. I was the one who forced you to make a choice.Jeff’s voice was filled with pain and regret.
Camellia found the entire exchange heartbreaking. She realized, in part, why Jonas hadn’t explained more to her with the two men so close. The explanation was very personal to Jeff. He blamed himself. He was blaming himself even more now. She supposed it was human nature to take on guilt for things it was impossible to control.
No one forced me to make a choice, Jeff,Jonas said flatly.I’ve never been forced to do anything in my life. My choices are my own, and I stand by them, even if they might be difficult to make.
I was there that day,Kyle said.We all were. Oliver would have killed a lot of us before he was through. He was out of his mind. If anyone was to blame, it was Whitney.
“You need to choose whose side you’re on, Camellia,” Angel hissed, his voice a thread of sound, as if he were hiding it from those below. “Choose now.”
They’d run out of time. There was no more negotiating and no finding out more information. Shaker was going to make his move against Jonas.
19
Camellia couldn’t help Jonas. She didn’t know exactly where he was in the dense fog. Like her, he was capable of disappearing into it. Pops and Lowell, the two men hunting him, had climbed up onto one of the helicopters. She had the vague impression of each of them through the droplets of mist, but she couldn’t let herself be distracted by trying to figure out what they were doing. Jeff, up in the tree, and Kyle, lying on the forest floor, were most at risk.
They’re going to attack,she warned the others and turned her attention first to Angel. She wanted to be able to keep her entire focus on Jeff and Kyle and not worry whether Angel was going to attack her the moment she turned her back.
She called on the mycelium network, bringing her weapons close to the surface. Mushrooms began to push through the forest floor, shoving aside the dirt and leaves. Rotting vegetation gave way to bright capped heads and subdued tanned ones. Several blackened cones pushed through the leaves to sit among the rocks anddowned trunks. Little mushrooms sprouted on the living tree trunks as well as those that had fallen years earlier.
“Don’t do this, Angel,” Camellia pleaded. She let the fog drift around her. Let him catch glimpses of her. She sat on a flattened boulder, one hand planted firmly to give her the ability to push off.
“You’re either with us or against us, Camellia,” he reiterated. “Loyalty is everything.” He leveled a gun at her. “Make your choice.”
“Clearly, you made yours.”
