"They want both men taken out?" Ryland asked.
The general nodded. "They want this genocide stopped there, and the ragtag army of rebels just seems to smash and run. They're good at disappearing. They're keeping the UN from delivering food to the people who need it most, although, if you ask me, the rebels also are holding the diamond mines hostage and the president wants them back, which is probably more of a motivating factor for him asking for help."
"And the bit about retrieval?" Ryland asked.
"Ekabela has a package he's protecting--a large diamond. He claims he would hand it over if Armine is assassinated, giving him control of the rebels. He negotiated a time and place where you'll meet him and retrieve the package. They want Sam to meet with him."
Ryland let out his breath in a long hiss of disapproval. "Sam is the sniper who killed his brother, Eudes."
The general nodded. "He shouldn't know that. Shouldn't have that information, but why specifically Sam, if he doesn't know?"
"That's a good question, sir," Ryland said. "Nico does most of the sniper missions for us. It doesn't make any sense that anyone would specifically ask for Sam."
The general took another piece of paper from his inside pocket and pushed it across the table to Ryland. "That's the name of the man I believe generated these orders. I was stonewalled everywhere I asked, but this man has been in my office, and both times, after he left, when we did the sweep for bugs, we found them. I know this sounds crazy, but I met him twice at charity events Whitney held. I think he's an old crony of Whitney's and they're still in touch. I don't know what these orders mean, but I know we're expected to carry them out."
Azami could see Ryland frowning over the name, but he didn't say it aloud. There were several people she suspected of aiding Whitney and she had them under surveillance.
"Who is he?" Ryland asked.
"He works for the CIA and operates out of Kinshasa. He's in tight with the president there, so it makes sense that the order would come from him, but I couldn't get confirmation, which doesn't make sense. No one keeps me out of the loop. Something doesn't smell right, Rye." He took a breath and avoided eye contact with Sam. "I want you to keep Sam here. I'll take the responsibility for overruling the order."
Relief flooded Azami. The general could have tried throwing suspicion onto someone else if he was still friends with Whitney, but he, for certain, loved his foster son.
"Sir," Sam began.
Ryland shot him a warning glance. "That isn't necessary, sir. Sam was wounded in the battle with the men trying to grab the Yoshiie family. He's in no shape to go on a mission."
The general sat back in his seat, both hands flat on the table. "You didn't think this was information I would have wanted to know?"
"I've been concerned that your office may be . . ." Ryland hesitated. "Compromised," he settled for. "Certainly someone is watching you. We didn't want it known that Sam was injured. Had he not responded to surgery, we would certainly have sent for you."
"Azami saved his life, sir," Kadan added.
"The next time my boy receives so much as a scratch, you send for me," the general hissed.
Azami found herself smiling. He couldn't fake that. He was genuinely angry.
"So what are we going to do about this, Rye?" General Ranier asked.
"We follow orders, sir. We go to the Congo," Ryland said.
"It's a damned ambush," Ranier declared. "There's no doubt in my mind. Take a look at Ken Norton and see what those rebels do to prisoners."
"I guess the trick will be not to get caught," Ryland said.
The general looked as if he might argue for a moment, but instead, he turned his glare to Sam, his bushy eyebrows drawn together in a frown. "So what's this nonsense about marriage?"
Sam grinned at his foster father, his face brightening. "I'm going to marry her fast, before she has time to think about how crazy it is to marry a soldier, sir."
"You don't even know the girl."
"I know her better than most men know the woman they've been with for twenty years."
Azami knew it was true. He'd been in her mind, saw her character, just as she'd seen his. It wasn't always comfortable because as they became closer, sharing minds more, they slipped in and out without the other knowing. But, once they'd shared minds, it was impossible not to be lonely without him.
The general made a noise. "Do you have any idea how wealthy that woman is? You're a soldier."
Sam just smiled at him.
The general pushed himself away from the table. "I can see I'm not going to do any good trying to stop you. In any case, you need to bring her around to see your mother." His voice was very gruff. "And you're not to move from this compound while your team is in the Congo." He turned to Ryland. "I want you to take your team and follow this directive to the letter. Take that rebel band down. Remove their leaders, pick up the package, take away their vehicles and their guns, and bring back every single one of your men. That's a direct order from me. Are we understood?"
"Yes, sir," Ryland agreed, saluting.
CHAPTER 16
"With respect, sir," Sam said, standing, "I would like to talk to you and Ryland about this."
Azami's heart sank. She had known all along Sam wouldn't stay home quietly while his fellow soldiers took his risk for him.
"We're done here, son," the general said and pushed back his chair.
"You would never allow a fellow teammate to go in your place and put his life on the line, possibly blow a mission. You just wouldn't, sir. Are you really expecting me to do less? I'm a soldier first and always. These men are mine, my family, my friends, my team. You know exactly what that means." Sam shook his head. "You know I can't live with myself if someone takes my place and dies."
The general suddenly looked old. "You're all we have, Sam," he said quietly.
"Tucker Addison is not a sacrificial lamb just because he's not your son," Sam pointed out. "He's every bit as valuable to this team as I am. This one is mine. You know I have to go."
Did he have to be so eloquent? A part of Azami was bursting with pride. She would have done exactly the same thing. He wasn't about to allow Tucker Addison to take his place and put his life in jeopardy. Sam was a soldier. He wouldn't hide behind a powerful foster father. She had to be honest with herself. She couldn't have respected Sam if he hadn't acted with honor, at least trying to state his case. She loved him all the more for his insistence, even though she was frightened for him. She had no qualms about death; it was merely a part of life. But now she had Sam to lose, and that wasn't quite so easy to live with.
"You're wounded, Sam. I can't, in good conscience, send you out in the field."
She knew the general was going to capitulate. He wouldn't have even discussed the issue with Sam, he simply would have given the order firmly and left. No, he was listening and admiring Sam, understanding who and what he was, just as she was--and both of them might lose him.
"I had a couple of second-generation Zenith patches slapped on my wounds immediately and I'm nearly completely healed," Sam continued in that same low, persuasive tone. "I'm in no way impaired and certain Lily will approve me for work. I know you received the report on the second-generation drug and have read the miracle reports on it."
Azami's heart jumped. That was it, the link to Whitney. All along she'd suspected Whitney had tapped into Lily's private computer, but there was no other evidence of it other than that study on second-generation Zenith. It wasn't Lily's compound or computers compromised, it was the general's. Her mind instantly connected the dots. General Ranier had gone to school with the senior Freeman, Scheffield, and Whitney. He'd been friends with all of them.
She wanted to reach out to Sam with her revelation, but she needed to wait. Ranier had gone into the military and served with distinction, moving him up the ranks fast. He was a brilliant strategist. Whitney would admire him and count on his support. Scheffield had become an advocate of diplomacy. She'd been so wrong about W
hitney's reasons for choosing Sam. Completely, utterly wrong. She'd thought it had something to do with her--with pairing them in some way, but Whitney hadn't thought about her after he dumped her. She was garbage to him and he'd gotten rid of her. She was the one obsessed with Whitney. Whitney truly didn't even know--or care--if she lived. As far as he was concerned, she was dead. Useless and therefore not worth thinking about.
She let her breath out slowly. There was another reason he chose Sam and that reason was in the war room. General Ranier had remained loyal to the president and his chief of staff. He hadn't cooperated with Whitney. He hadn't fed him information nor done his bidding to try to work behind the scenes to forward Whitney's agenda. Peter Whitney would consider Ranier's conduct the worst betrayal of all. The general was in charge of a team of GhostWalkers. They were highly skilled, elite men and women with special psychic gifts the rest of the world knew nothing about.
Azami knew Whitney inside and out. She'd made it her mission in life to study everything about him. His genius was undisputed, but there was no doubt in her mind that over the years, too many privileges and his very genius had eaten away at his sanity. Somewhere along the line he'd lost all perspective and believed himself to be omnipotent. Anyone not agreeing with him or siding with him was his enemy. Ranier would be despised for not adhering to Whitney's code of conduct--complete servitude to him and his ideology.
Sam was not a pawn or a sacrifice; he was Whitney's hand of justice. Sam would be murdered to punish Ranier. That would make perfect sense to Whitney. He would feel as if Ranier deserved the pain and suffering of losing a child. Sam meant nothing to Whitney. He'd already dismissed him.
Azami took a deep breath and let it out slowly between her teeth, turning her attention back to the war room and Sam. Before she could stop herself, her hand went to the screen, fingers drifting over his face. Her pulse hammered hard in her temples, and her throat threatened to close. Sam, her beloved Sam was nothing more than garbage to Whitney, just as she had been. He didn't see Sam's brilliance--or maybe he did and he feared it. Whitney wouldn't want anyone with an IQ to rival his enormous ego.
For the very first time, it occurred to her that if Whitney could devalue a man like Sam, he made a huge mistake by getting rid of her. Whitney wasn't quite as smart as he thought he was. One didn't throw away valuable pieces of experiments to get back at other people. The other mistake he'd clearly made was in not keeping an eye on what happened to her. He had no idea that little useless Thorn was in fact the brilliant Azami Yoshiie and that she was coming after him.
She kept her hand over Sam's face on the screen as the general replied gruffly, shoving his emotion away with a quick, impatient shrug as he gripped Sam's shoulder.
"If Ryland wants you on that team, it's his decision."
"Transport?" Ryland asked.
"It's all in there," General Ranier said, his tone dripping with disgust. "But I wouldn't trust any of it. Not a single person involved in this. And Ryland, don't trust your transport out if things go to hell. Not even your escape route."
"I understand, sir."
Azami closed her eyes briefly. It was easy enough for the general to say "don't trust your escape route," but the team needed not only a pickup point but an alternate in case things did go to hell. What would they do if neither route was open to them? Her mind began to race with possibilities. She might not be able to go to the Congo with them--it would be ridiculous to go into battle with a team already set and knowing one another's every move--but that didn't mean there weren't dozens of other ways she could give aid. And she had the equipment and technology to do it.
"Be ready to leave at oh-five-hundred. We'll have an unmarked Learjet standing by to take you. Did you read the directive, Ryland?" General Ranier asked. "They're questioning why a captain is going into the field with his team on a mission like this. They'd like you to sit this one out."
"You know the reason, sir. Not all the members of my team are anchors. We're not like other covert forces and you know that. Some of my men wouldn't survive without an anchor. Lily's working with those that aren't, but the psychic overload is still too much." His eyes met the general's. "We count on you to keep them off of us, sir, and allow us to operate in the way that we can. We can't live with other people, and our unit is tight-knit because it has to be. I think the good we do outweighs any negative. We have never failed in a mission."
"I'll keep them off of you," the general replied, a bulldog expression settling on his face. "And I'll find out who's behind these orders."
"I think we both know who's behind the order," Ryland said.
The general shrugged. "I need to find who his puppet is and bring him down."
Azami smiled with satisfaction. At last. Someone thought the way she did. Cut Whitney off from his power source. He was bound to grow desperate and make a mistake. His ego was far too large to go long without wanting to lead the military and country in the direction he believed it should go.
Sam, it's someone in his office who has been casting suspicion on the general. Someone there he trusts is supplying Whitney with information on all of you. Whitney must have gotten the second-generation Zenith study from the general's office, not from Lily's computer. That's why nothing has shown up in her computer. It's clean.
Azami couldn't allow Sam to continue to have his foster father under suspicion. They had to find the traitor and cut him off from Whitney. She could at least take care of that problem.
Sam cleared his throat. "Whitney has the study Lily did on second-generation Zenith. We've gone over her computer with experts and it's clean. The only other person who had that information was you. We've known for some time that there's been someone feeding Whitney information, and we suspected that information was coming from your office. He knew too much about our orders, things that could only come from a source close to you."
Ranier's head snapped up. Azami sucked in her breath. He knew they had suspected him. One didn't get to his position without being sharp. His gray eyebrows drew together and for the first time, she thought he looked terribly impressive. He glared at his son, and then at Ryland.
"You suspected I was in bed with that despicable lunatic? After what he did to my son? To all of you? To soldiers? Women? You thought I would send you out into combat to be slaughtered?"
"No, sir," Sam said. The ring of truth was in his voice. "I thought you would be loyal to your staff. You trust them. Like Colonel Higgens, you would have a difficult time suspecting one of them of betraying you."
Ranier winced at the mention of Colonel Higgens, a man who had worked against the GhostWalker program by trying to have them murdered. "You should have told me."
"Would you have believed us, sir?" Sam asked.
"That's beside the point. At least I would have been more careful. I've had the same aide and secretary for years. Neither would betray their country or me. Perhaps my computer is compromised. Although . . . Art Patterson worked a couple of offices down. He wasn't privy to that study but he may have managed to get into the computer . . ."
"Lily's research was never sent via computer for that reason," Ryland reminded.
Azami went over what she knew of the two suspects. Lt. Col. Andrew Chapman was a bachelor and a strict military man. He'd served with General Ranier in more than one war and in fact, had saved his life on one occasion. They were reputed to be close friends as well as working together.
Melanie Freesha was a civilian with a high security clearance who had, at one time, actually worked in the White House before she'd gone to work for Ranier several years earlier. She too had an impeccable reputation. Azami understood loyalty, almost more than any other character trait. She was loyal to her father, Daiki, and Eiji and she'd defend them to the death. Now, Sam was included in that small circle of people she trusted enough to give her loyalty to.
"Andy and Melanie have been with me for years. Andy and I came up through the ranks together. He's a good soldier. I wouldn't be standing here
if it wasn't for him. More than once, we fought our way out of some dicey situations. He's a steady, reliable man with a good mind and extremely loyal to his country. He's a career man and doesn't have a dishonest bone in his body. He would no more turn traitor than take a gun out and shoot the president."
The general's brows managed to come together even tighter, his frown fierce. Thunder could have boomed through the room and Azami wouldn't have been surprised. The general believed in what he was telling them. "Melanie Freesha has worked for years in numerous high-security-clearance jobs, and she's performed each with absolute propriety. She may not be military, but she understands it and she knows the value of silence. There has never been so much as a whisper or rumor connected to her. Did you think I didn't consider that there was a leak? I sweep my office twice a day. I don't trust the computer. The GhostWalkers are classified. The entire program is kept secret. No one wants to know it exists. They leave us alone and don't ask questions, so there's really no reason to talk about it--and I don't and neither does my aide or my secretary."
The general was very persuasive, but Azami wasn't buying it. He didn't want to believe that the people he'd worked with for years would betray him. Both were patriotic, but Whitney believed himself a patriot. His descent into madness was not without brilliance, and those loyal to him would only see the brilliance, the drive to protect his country. Certainly many people believed in a strong military nation, and the continual attempts at diplomacy in the face of terrorists or acts of aggression from some countries might be enough to persuade them that Whitney had the answers.
She didn't really understand how the general could pass orders on to his team when he knew they would be walking into an ambush. She wished she was in the room with him. She was much better at getting a feel for someone when she was face-to-face with them. Perhaps it had something to do with their energy, she didn't really know, but it was rare for her to be deceived by someone. It just didn't make sense . . .