Camellia analyzed the way the musical note twisted and moved in the rolling fog as it rushed back to Lewis. Sound could do so many things, including kill. Shaker didn’t kill with his voice. He could persuade with it. What else could he do? Was it even possible to repair a wound with sound? She doubted it, at least not the sort of fast-bleeding mortal wound Lewis had. Already, Lewis had dropped to his knees. That pain on Shaker’s face had told the tale. He knew it was a lost cause, but he was willing to try.
“Shaker,” Camellia whispered into the fog, “take your brothers and go home. This is so wrong. It’s all wrong. There’s no need for more deaths.”
“I’ll get to you soon enough,” Shaker whispered back.
There was no sense in trying to talk to him. He was so certain Jonas had murdered his brother and that Ryland and the rest of Team One had covered it up. Why they would do that made no sense, but then what Shaker was doing made no sense either.
Contact Team Two’s men and tell them it’s a go. Take out the advance scouts, Jonas ordered Camellia. I had hoped we could get Shaker to call them back, but he isn’t going to listen to us. We have to stop them before they get to the compound.
Camellia tapped into the underground network and sent the green light to Team Two, who were waiting to take out the four enhanced scouts. She wished them good luck and then turned her attention to Lowell, who had turned away from where she thought Jonas had been.
Jonas, he’s moving back toward Kyle and Jeff.
I’m on him. Jonas sounded completely confident.
She didn’t understand how he could be so certain of himself. Shaker might not be able to disappear into the fog, but like them, he could use it, and he was adept at using it. Tusker could hear a whisper of sound. There was no hiding Jeff’s movements from him. Jeff didn’t care if they heard him. He wanted them to know he was going to protect Kyle.
Camellia turned her attention to Kyle’s wound. The mycelium network pushed close to the surface, allowing Red to bring one of the flowering vines right over Kyle’s shoulder where the spear had entered. Petals of a blossom pressed around the blade.
Hold very still and don’t try to pull away even if it hurts more, Kyle. Camellia didn’t see how it could hurt more.
Pops was easing closer. In the thick mist, there was no way for Jeff or Kyle to see him, but she made certain, through her connection with them, that she provided Pop’s exact location. He was coming up behind Kyle’s head, going in a wide circle so that he had already entered the forest and was out of the clearing. Unlike Lewis, he didn’t make a sound. He was more like a giant lizard, at home on his belly, claws gripping the soil and moving him as quickly over a surface as if he were jogging on two feet. Pops was an unknown, and that was a little terrifying. She would have to trust Jonas and Jeff to keep him off of Kyle while she tried to prevent Kyle from bleeding out.
Camellia pushed everything out of her mind but the terrible penetrating wound in Kyle’s shoulder. The blood supply to the upper extremities was carried in the subclavian artery, which began near the heart and traveled under the clavicle bone. From there, it branched off into several smaller vessels and then continued on as the axillary artery.
Gorman had either known exactly what he was doing when he brought that spear down so hard on Kyle, or he’d been incredibly lucky when Kyle had rolled. The spear had gone down through the shoulder and come out the armpit. The tip was buried at least an inch deep in the soil. The moment she saw the blade had gone through his armpit Camellia knew, just as Kyle did, that the situation was bad.
She followed the path of the blade as it went through skin and muscle, through veins and finally, the axillary artery. She bit the side of her bottom lip hard. She’d never tried such a difficult task from a distance.
* * *
Get on it, Jonas said. You can do it. He knew Camellia could.
Jonas had complete faith in Camellia. She had brought them all together with the underground network, extending the communication to Jeff and Kyle. Right now, he would have to block her out of his mind because the things he would have to do to protect his brother GhostWalkers were the things that might be abhorrent to her. He would have to call on those traits that Whitney enhanced him with in order for all of them to survive. He understood that Shaker was far more dangerous than any of them had realized.
Shaker had penetrated Team One. He had undermined their trust in one another by using the spy Abrams had instilled in their midst. It had taken time for Jonas to work out how Shaker had managed to do it, but Camellia had given him the idea. Shaker’s voice had become more beguiling over time. It was a slow influencer, but he’d had a couple of years to plan his revenge, and he had taken full advantage of every minute.
Shaker was using his voice now, trying to stop Jeff from rushing to Kyle’s aid. Trying to persuade Kyle to pull the spear from his body. Trying to get Camellia to stand up and walk to him. The one thing he wasn’t doing was working on getting Jonas to show himself. Shaker and his brother Tusker had something very special planned for the man they were certain had murdered their brother Oliver.
Pops had nearly reached Kyle, his head moving from side to side, held down low, eyes fixed on him. He was walking on hands and feet, body held low off the ground. He swayed from side to side as he walked. Like a lizard. A giant lizard.
He’s venomous, a Komodo dragon, Jeff, Jonas warned. He’s going for Kyle’s head. You can’t afford to let him sink his teeth into either of you. Komodos have a powerful bite, and their venom will eventually make you bleed out.
Kyle can’t move, Jeff argued.
That’s why I’m here, Jonas said.
He was risking his relationship with Camellia, but she either could accept him as he was, or she couldn’t. He would never be free of what Whitney had done to him. He would always be that man—the one needing to protect those he considered family or too weak to protect themselves. That was part of who and what he was. It was one thing to talk about it, another to witness it.
Oliver’s brothers knew him—had known him for years—and yet they hadn’t reached out to him to ask him what had happened after their brother’s death. Not once. They’d joined the GhostWalker program after Oliver and Jonas. Oliver had tried to talk them out of it, but neither of his brothers listened to him. They were intrigued with his abilities and ignored the toll it took on his sanity.
Apparently, they had both managed, through Whitney, to wash out of the program so they could be hired as private security for Abrams. The less demanding schedules of private security forces had clearly left them plenty of time to plot their revenge when they decided Jonas and Team One were guilty of murdering Oliver. They’d changed their appearance just enough that Jonas wouldn’t recognize them immediately. Every step had been planned carefully, including the plan to murder the members of Team One and their families.