Whispers in the Dark - Maya Banks [144]
Nathan kissed her temple and stroked a hand down her hair. But he remained silent so Sam could give her the details as unemotionally as possible. Nathan couldn’t be objective. He still couldn’t even think about Resnick without wanting to kill the bastard. He couldn’t forgive the fact that, if not for Resnick, Shea wouldn’t have been captured a second time.
“He wasn’t the one who handed you over to the people who hurt you. I know it seems that way. He took you from us because he wanted to protect you. It was stupid. But I don’t think he ever meant for you to be harmed. There’s more. He believes there’s a good possibility that he’s your brother.”
This time, Nathan felt her shock roll through him. Their pathway was open and he could feel all the conflicting emotions. Her anger. Sadness. And her confusion.
“He was an experiment too. A failed one, by his account. He doesn’t have special abilities like you and Grace. He’s the one who helped the Petersons when you moved to Oregon. He finally tracked them down after they disappeared with you and Grace years earlier. He funded their efforts and directed them to call on him if help was ever needed. He asked them to tell you and Grace the same but evidently they didn’t trust him or maybe they just didn’t want you to know the truth about their roles in your birth and the fact that they weren’t your biological parents.”
“Does he know who wants Grace and me so badly?”
“He hadn’t given us all the information, but Donovan did a little hacking and we have access to all his files,” Sam said with a satisfied grin.
Shea glanced to Donovan, her eyes wary.
Donovan sent her a reassuring smile. “I don’t want you to worry. Okay? Promise me that.”
“Tell me,” she said softly.
“He spoke of two Russian scientists, so I went in search of information regarding them as well as anything else I could find out about the purpose of the experiments and their intended uses. I was able to track down one of the scientists, who still lives here in the U.S. despite Resnick thinking or at least saying that he’d returned to Russia.”
Shea went still and leaned forward, her eyes narrowed in concentration.
“In the beginning this was solely a military-funded and -backed research subject. Highly classified. Furthermore, there were other successful test subjects besides you and Grace. There were other children born with psychic talents. But once they discovered that they’d been able to produce the ability to heal, the others were discarded, adopted out, dropped from the program.”
“Grace,” Shea whispered. “It was about Grace all along. Why keep me then?”
“Because you have that ability too, Shea,” Donovan said gently. “Yes, it would seem that your abilities differ, but think about what you did for Nathan. Now consider how you and Grace could operate as a team. Remote healing. We talked about this before, remember? You could communicate with and take the pain and suffering from someone. Grace healed Swanny through you. Now think about how the military would use gifts like these. Indestructible soldiers. They get injured on the battlefield and are healed telepathically. They get captured and tortured for information? You take their pain and suffering and shield them from it. They’d be like machines. Never breaking. Imagine it from a rescue perspective. Just as you did for Nathan, you could communicate with the prisoner and lead a rescue team to him. These are talents that, yes, the military would kill for.”
“But you work for the military. All of you. Or at least you did,” she said in bewilderment. “Don’t you still?”
“This is a part of the military that no one ever sees. Not even the enlisted themselves,” Sam said. “ ‘Funded by the military’ is a code word for a top-secret project that only a few very high-ranking people even know about. The men and women out there serving aren’t monsters. They’re doing their jobs. Research like this is done for black op groups that don’t officially exist. We’re telling you this because