Toxic Game (GhostWalkers #15) - Christine Feehan Page 0,154
the dead with the flies and maggots crawling all over them. He did too.”
Ethan’s father snorted. “What about him? Advisor to the president of Indonesia. What a joke. You’d think he could keep it in his pants, but he probably considered the whole affair a good joke on the rich American. We go for a meeting, and my guards tell me she’s all over him. Three days in and she’s fucking him.
“Before he died, I made certain he knew why Lupa Suku was destroyed, every man, woman and child. He was found dead this morning, and it looked like suicide. She’ll know it wasn’t because I made certain we had a video of him being hung. I wanted her to see him dying, choking to death slowly. I made certain she knew that every one of those deaths was on her head.”
“Sir, you know you have to be safe. She knows too much.”
Calvin’s expression turned crafty. “I’m enjoying her crude attempts to make it up to me. I like exacting revenge. There’s a meeting coming up between the five of us, the World Alliance, and I think she’ll be perfect for entertainment. After, when she thinks she’s in the clear, I’ll strangle her.” He held up his hands. “I want the satisfaction.”
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