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)
“Trap vaccinated everyone here,” Wyatt said. “The vaccine was tested immediately by the military labs, and it’s working. But he can’t vaccinate the entire population of the swamp.”
“Fucking Whitney got exactly what he wanted,” Draden said. “He used us. He took a chance with Shylah’s life and he used us to get him his biological weapon and his vaccine. Those in the White House helping to hide him are no doubt very grateful to him and he’ll be doubly dangerous now. They’ll give him all the more room because he delivered.”
“Do you think he intentionally allowed his virologists to escape with the virus?” Malichai asked, stuffing food into his mouth as he did so. Nonny may have been gone, but she’d left behind casseroles and various other meals in the freezer for her “boys.” Malichai was forever hungry and no one made home-cooked meals like Nonny. “What do you really think, Shylah? You’ve been around Whitney more than any of us.”
Shylah turned that over and over in her mind. Was it possible Whitney had known all along that the men were talking with Ethan Montgomery? Even accepting money from him? He had to have known. Everything was monitored. Email, phones, computers, any kind of device that sent messages out or received them. He had cameras everywhere as well as audio to pick up conversations. He was able to monitor bank accounts of those he employed. He had people that did that sort of thing 24/7. Even if the Williams brothers and Orucov were smart enough to find a code to use, Whitney would have known, and he would find someone to break it—or would do so himself. He enjoyed playing with codes.
She nodded her head slowly. “He would have known. They couldn’t have been working for Montgomery, passing him information over several years, without Whitney finding out. A few weeks, maybe, but it sounded as if they had been accepting pay from the Montgomerys for a long while.”
“So, he allowed them to take a few drops of the virus with them,” Joe said, shaking his head. “He’s partially responsible for the deaths of all those people in Lupa Suku.”
“With the way Whitney thinks, the fact that we uncovered the Montgomerys and the consortium and who was funding the MSS is valuable information worth the lives of those people,” Shylah said. “People aren’t that important. They’re disposable, especially ones that cut themselves off from the rest of the world. In his mind, they’re part of the problem. They don’t contribute in ways he feels are vital.”
Joe swore under his breath. “He’s won himself more support. If any country protests that weapon, we have only to say we’re working on a vaccine. No one knows Shylah and Draden fought it off and survived. The soldiers guarding them knew very little. For all they were told, they were there to try to infiltrate the MSS. The fact that they killed so many of them would lend itself to that explanation.”
“Montgomery made it clear he knew two people were taken out of the forest and flown with a military escort back to the States,” Draden pointed out. “That was clear in the video chat.”
“But he doesn’t know who. Chances are very good their informant doesn’t know who. Your names were never given out. We had to promise the Indonesian government that if you were infected, you wouldn’t be able to leave that area.”
“In other words,” Draden said, “You were supposed to kill us if we tried.”
Joe sent him a lopsided grin and a little shrug. “That may have been mentioned, but I had that woman of yours giving me nightmares. Wasn’t about to be the one to pull the trigger.” His grin widened when he looked at Shylah and gave her a little salute.
“Glad to have made an impact,” she answered with a little bow.
Malichai laughed. “Joe came back telling us about guns to his head and a sniper being threatened. A few more very interesting times as well. I’m a little in love with your wife, Draden, and I fully admit it. Course, my woman’s going to just feed me and fan me. No opposition. I don’t have the kind of energy a man needs to put up with a feisty woman. I need me a ‘yes’ woman.”
The room erupted into laughter as the GhostWalkers scattered around in various reposes, draped over chairs, lazily leaning against walls or sprawled out on the floor commented simultaneously on Malichai’s statement. Most thought he was full of bullshit, but the general common consensus was there weren’t any “yes” women for him to find.
“I’m about to start searching,” he said solemnly. “I’ve been contemplating on how to best go about finding this woman. In the interests of not having to work too hard, I’ve been composing an ad to take out in one of those serious-about-relationship places online.” He chewed thoughtfully and regarded his teammates deadpan as he did so.