Samurai Game (GhostWalkers #10)(55)
Author: Christine Feehan

Ryland sat up straight, comprehension dawning. “You think Violet Freeman is paired to Whitney himself.”

CHAPTER 11

There was a small silence while the men seated at the table absorbed the idea. Whitney paired, perhaps married to a U. S. senator. What kind of carte blanche would he have for his experiments? The idea was daunting.

“Who is your informant?”

Sam threaded his fingers through Azami’s and held her hand under the table. He wanted to brush his mouth across her knuckles just to show her none of the things she said mattered. He wasn’t afraid of anything Whitney might have done to pair them together. He didn’t see how the man could have, not when Azami hadn’t seen Whitney since she was eight and he had joined the GhostWalker program a few years ago.

“You know I can’t give you that information any more than you’d give it to me,” Azami told Ryland. “You can choose to believe me or not, but the point is, once Whitney got his hands on Violet again, she ceased to be loyal to Freeman.”

Ryland sat back in his chair, assessing Azami for a long time. Sam knew that look. The man respected her, even liked her and was beginning to believe her. “I don’t believe Violet was ever loyal to Freeman. She might have been paired physically with him, but she wants power. She craves it like a drug. Freeman was a means to that power and she obviously controlled him. From all accounts, Violet was different from the other women from your childhood. She wanted status with Whitney and did whatever it took to get it. The more she climbed that ladder, the more power she wanted. Freeman wasn’t a man she fell in love with. The power was what she loved. For a while there she believed she could break away from Whitney and get the things she wanted. If he paired her with him, that allegiance is all about what she can get and the status she can achieve. If you’re right, Azami, she believes she’ll eventually end up in the White House.”

Azami’s breath left her lungs in a little rush. Sam resisted pulling her into his arms to hold her close to him when he heard that soft sound of relief. Ryland had given her the reassurance that Sam couldn’t. The GhostWalkers, paired by Whitney or not, loved one another and still, under even extreme circumstances, would choose to take the honorable path.

“Thank you,” Azami said with a graceful head bow toward Ryland. “I do not want to think that if Whitney gets his hands on one of us, he could turn us against each other.”

“He may think he can,” Ryland said, “but I seriously doubt it.”

The tension drained from Azami. Sam was aware that to his teammates she seemed at ease. He was the only one in the room who knew she was anxious. He wasn’t in her mind, but he could still feel that slight disturbance of her energy. Her gaze lifted to his face, drifting over the hard edges, taking him in. He was no prize, certainly not the handsomest man in the room, but he knew without a doubt, no one else would understand or be as loyal to her as he would.

Azami pressed her lips together and then switched her gaze back to Ryland. “That’s good to know.”

“If this information you’ve given us is true,” Ryland said, “Whitney’s probably been pumping arms and money into the rebel camp for some time in order to gain control of the diamond mines. Tens of thousands of people have lost their lives and still it isn’t enough. Whitney must be determined to gain control, through the rebel forces, of that specific area—that particular diamond mine.”

“Can that diamond be so important to him?” Sam murmured aloud. “Back when Jack and Ken Norton went in with a team to rescue a senator, we believed that senator was part of a coalition trying to get rid of the GhostWalkers. Suppose we were right, but the senator double-crossed Whitney? Suppose Whitney and the senator were originally acting together to get a diamond or diamonds Whitney wanted and the negotiations didn’t go as planned because the senator had other ideas?”

Azami shrugged. “That’s entirely possible. Senator Freeman was being used as Whitney’s way into the White House. He paired him with Violet, thinking she would influence Freeman to do Whitney’s bidding. I know that Whitney provided money to back Freeman’s campaign using several corporations to donate.”

“Senator Freeman’s father and Whitney went to school together,” Sam told her. “He’s a powerful man in banking.”

Azami nodded. “He communicates with Whitney often. I think the idea, eventually, was to take control of the presidency. They groomed Freeman’s son for the position, paired him with Violet, and helped his political career.”

“But Violet got greedy,” Sam said. “Or maybe it was the senator. They broke with Whitney and aligned themselves with whoever it is in the White House that wants to get rid of the GhostWalkers. He would have to have access to classified information, so someone … ”

“Like the chief of staff, Bernard Scheffield?” Azami suggested. “He was also in Whitney’s class, but was his archenemy.”

Ryland swung around to pin her with a stare. “Where the hell do you get this information? I knew they went to college together, but archenemy? I never heard that.”

Azami shrugged, looking smug. “They despise one another. Whitney often speaks of him in disparaging terms. He’s even gone so far as to say he’s working with foreign nationals to bring down the U. S. Whitney believes in a strong military and that every U. S. citizen should be protected, much like the Romans. If harm comes to a U. S. citizen, the retaliation should be swift and brutal.”

“Does he want us to go to war with everyone?” Ryland asked.

Azami shrugged again. “Whitney believes that Scheffield is advising the president against building up the military—that he wants to cut funds to the military and always, always chooses a diplomatic path. Whitney was so furious when American tourists were taken prisoner after hiking near the Iranian border that he actually discussed assassinating the chief of staff. Whitney told his private army that everyone knew those taken were just kids. He claimed the Iranian government was using them to try to force the U. S. into giving them what they wanted, all of which was probably true, but it didn’t warrant the military intervention that Whitney believed should have been taken immediately.”

“How long has this feud been going on?” Sam asked. “Not since they were in school?”

“Apparently Bernard Scheffield comes from money. Big money. He was considered a big deal in school. Not only did he have money and relatives in high places, he was the smartest kid in the school—until Whitney showed up.”