Total pages in book: 153
Estimated words: 140965 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 705(@200wpm)___ 564(@250wpm)___ 470(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 140965 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 705(@200wpm)___ 564(@250wpm)___ 470(@300wpm)
Ethan sat up alertly, shaking his head. “You know better. You can’t do that. It has to look like an accident. There can be nothing to tie this back to you. Have them kill her in front of you, but you can’t do it. You’re the one who taught me that. We have an alliance. When a favor is called in, we do it. Ask a favor. I’ll come to you and do it myself.” There was just enough alarm in his voice that it was evident he was serious.
Calvin sighed. “I suppose you’re right. And no, you stay there where I know you’re safe. I don’t want anyone to get the idea that you’re involved in this virus business. These GhostWalkers of Whitney’s are troublesome unless we can recruit them for ourselves. Violet came to me and explained everything going on. We convinced her we’d back her for the presidency when the time came in return for favors. That was why she took the files on the GhostWalkers to Cheng. It was part of the deal we made with her. There wasn’t much there. Whitney plays things close to his chest. We were just lucky the Williams boys worked for him.”
“I’m not too worried about the GhostWalkers. They seem like jokes to me. Tyler and Cameron sent pictures of some of these clowns. They look like steroid users. All bulked up, can barely move. Whatever Whitney is doing isn’t working. I doubt his supersoldiers could fight their way out of a paper bag.”
“Violet did say he was doing all sorts of genetic editing. Or splicing. Or something like that. I don’t care what the hell it is, but he’s mixing in animals and insects. Hell, someone says he has snake children out in the swamp.” There was utter contempt in Calvin’s voice. “Cheng has asked that the virus be used on them. He wants them wiped out. He blames them for the death of his brother.”
“That’s ridiculous. Sir.” Ethan rubbed his thumb across the bridge of his nose, whiskey glass in hand, as if reluctant to speak. “Cheng is descending into madness. I’ve seen these so-called GhostWalkers. Cheng has no evidence whatsoever that they killed his brother. Or that they took him prisoner.”
“It’s more than possible.”
“I doubt it,” Ethan argued. “I know the military supposedly has four teams, but what have they really done? Have you gotten any real statistics on them? No one talks. No one. We’ve offered a lot of money, but no one’s gotten footage of them, or given them up other than Violet, and she wanted something huge in return. What exactly did she give Cheng? She refused to give the files on them to more than Cheng, after we were the ones to offer to help her in the first place.”
“She was paranoid, and who wouldn’t be if you thought the GhostWalkers would come after you. Each of us in the consortium offered her money in exchange for information, but Cheng offered the best deal, so she went with him. She wasn’t aware of the World Alliance as a whole. We couldn’t afford to take that chance with our identities.”
“That just proves my point about Cheng. The agreement was for each of us to make an offer to her, without her knowledge of our alliance. Cheng refused to share information with us once he acquired it, even though everything is supposed to be shared. Why? He didn’t really have anything but wanted us to think so. I believe the military paid a lot of money for a bunch of misfits. Screw-ups, but no one wants to admit it. If they weren’t, would the Marines or the Air Force allow them to build fortresses on our soil? No one’s worried about them.”
Calvin shook his head. “Ethan, when our consortium can’t find information on those teams, it doesn’t mean they’re screw-ups—just the opposite, in fact. It means they’re the real deal and we need to be wary of them. We don’t want their attention ever turned our way. We work behind the scenes and run the world. We don’t want publicity. We don’t draw attention to ourselves. If the GhostWalkers are everything Cheng says, we could all be in trouble. We’ll keep a low profile and continue trying to penetrate their ranks. Sooner or later, it will happen, but we have to have patience.”
Ethan started to argue but then he sighed and nodded his head. “I hear you, sir. I’ll be more careful, and I’ll definitely see what Tyler and Cameron have to say about them. They were in Whitney’s employ for quite a few years.”
“Where are they now?”
“I gave them enough cash to get the identities they needed to get back into the States. I wanted to be home here in Mississippi for a week or so before they arrived. That way it looks as if I went to see them because they put out an SOS, found out what they were doing and got out of there. Just trying to cover my ass.”