“I wouldn’t mind getting in on that,” Malichai added. “Having been on the receiving end of his lessons on manners quite a few times, I can testify that my brother has excellent skills in this particular area.”

“Don’ even think the two of you city boys could take on a Cajun born and bred in the bayou and win,” Wyatt cautioned. “’Specially when a lady is watchin’.”

Pepper tapped the blueprints. “Maybe we should just forego the lesson in manners altogether. My guess is, Grand-mere tried her best, and if she couldn’t get anything through that thick skull of his, no one could.”

“So how did you get out?” Trap asked, bringing them all back to the important matters at hand.

“The ventilation system, which, by the way, is very narrow. I actually was afraid I’d get stuck a couple of times. Every eight feet they have high-speed fans. I believe it was more to ensure against escape than to ventilate, but I could be wrong.”

“So thick concrete, elevators requiring both palm prints and a code,” Wyatt said. “Whose palm print?”

“A specific guard. There’re only two of them. They always are the ones to accompany the prisoners. They escorted me and the children, and they left and came back with the other woman.”

“You had no communication with the woman?” Draden asked.

“I didn’t say that,” Pepper said. “I just don’t know anything about her. We used a kind of Morse code. Every soldier is taught it at school and I knew she was one of us – the flawed rejects, not worthy of being called a soldier.”

“Don’ say that.” The table trembled and Wyatt pulled his fists from the top of it and put his hands on her narrow waist. “That just pisses me off. You’re one of us – a GhostWalker – and so is that woman. If she’s still alive, we’ll go in and get her out. We don’ leave anyone behind.”

“Her name is Cayenne. That means she was developed at the school in France. Everyone there was given the name of a spice. She wasn’t with my group, so she’s probably a little younger than me.”

The men looked at one another. “That means she can’t be more than eighteen or nineteen. Twenty at the oldest,” Wyatt said. “What the hell did she do to get herself on a termination list?”

“Unfortunately, if you don’t follow orders and you try to escape or you refuse to do something they think is important, with Braden, that’s pretty much all it takes, especially if they already think you’re dangerous.”

“Every GhostWalker is dangerous,” Trap pointed out. “We’re supposed to be. I think the original idea of enhancing our psychic abilities was lost a bit when Whitney switched that over to genetics.”

“Whitney uses women and children to experiment on,” Draden said, “to perfect his ideas before he tries them on his male soldiers.”

“Damn him,” Ezekiel said. “Why can’t one of us get to him?”

“The intel on him is that he moves every couple of days. He can be anyone,” Wyatt said. “He’s become that good.”

Malichai nodded. “He was actually at the White House for an event with Violet Freeman a couple of months back. Violet is now officially a widow. Senator Freeman died. Whitney used an alias, but Lily Miller, Whitney’s daughter, has facial recognition software constantly searching for him and it identified him positively. While he was there, he met with several top members of the president’s staff. We don’t know why, of course, but we think he’s moving Violet into position to run for president next election year.”

“Violet’s a GhostWalker,” Wyatt added to Pepper. “But for some reason, she betrayed the other women in her unit and has aligned herself with Whitney. Our sources say she’s actually in a relationship with him.”

“I’m not certain I believe it,” Trap said. “Unfortunately, I’m just a little too close to his personality, and I would find it very difficult to maintain a relationship with anyone – or at least they wouldn’t be comfortable for very long with me.”

Draden nudged Malichai. “I’m comfortable with him. Aren’t you?”

“Well, since he read those books on manners and social behaviors, he’s gotten a little more tolerable,” Malichai replied. “But I think you still have work to do on him, bro. Miss Manners? Maybe she gives a course he can take. We can hire someone to teach him.”

In one smooth motion Trap drew a knife from the sheath between his shoulder blades and threw it at Malichai. The knife took off the material of Malichai’s shirt along his right shoulder and lodged in the wall behind him, the material pinned there.

“You’re in such trouble now,” Malichai said. “Grand-mere said no playing with knives in the house. Especially her kitchen.”

“I didn’t know the rules before, so she can’t really get angry with me,” Trap justified. “In any case, if I take you out back and skin you alive, she’ll probably thank me.”

“She’s got a soft spot for me,” Malichai declared. “I appreciate good cooking, unlike certain cretins who don’t even know what they’re chewing on.”

Nonny wandered in, glancing at the blueprints spread out over her kitchen table. “When you boys are through playin’ with your knives and guns, I’ve got me an idea, now that we’ll have three babies and Pepper to protect.”