Kindle Notes & Highlights
Rubin was a GhostWalker, enhanced psychically as well as physically. He was one of the ultra-rare—a psychic surgeon.
Her brother was now named Axel, and Malichai knew the baby was pleased with his name. He should be. Axel had been one of the few men Trap respected. He’d died in the field, saving his fellow Marines and a few of the GhostWalkers who were working on wounded. Trap had been one of those men. Malichai another. Axel was a good, strong name. But the little girl needed a name.
“Waiting for all those tubes to be gone,” Trap said gruffly. “Well, stop waiting, she doesn’t like it,” Malichai informed him. Trap turned around slowly. He was pacing up and down the length of the basement, Axel in his arms. “What do you mean, she doesn’t like it?”
“She’s telepathic. Same as your son. They talk back and forth. She doesn’t like that you haven’t given her a name. In fact, she thinks you don’t want her. Apparently, you don’t hold her. Only Cayenne does.”
For the first time, Cayenne reacted, pulling the baby in closer to her and hunching her body protectively, her eyes on her husband. “I’ll name her, Malichai.” She looked down at the tiny face and smiled. “I want you, beautiful. I had no idea you were there, lurking in the background. You’re like me, aren’t you? Axel is like your father, but you’re like me. You don’t mind being quiet while they stand in front.” “I want her too, Cayenne,” Trap said. “You’re misunderstanding me. I can’t hold her because she’s so tiny. I’m afraid I’ll crush her. That’s what I mean when I tell you to look at her.
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He heard the ring of sincerity in his voice. He loved his little girl and was panicked at the thought of hurting her. Just as he was terrified of losing Cayenne, he was fearful of losing his tiny daughter. That was most likely the real reason he didn’t want to name her.
“I’ve already picked out her name,” Trap added gruffly. “I had the name picked out before she was born. Drusilla. I want to call her Drusilla. We talked about this once, Cayenne, an...
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Trap took the seat beside Cayenne and handed Axel to Malichai. He held out his arms for his daughter. “Share, sweetheart. You’re not supposed to be holding anything too heavy. In fact, you shouldn’t be up yet.”
Immediately, the little girl’s eyes opened. Malichai wanted to point out the intelligence there, but he was certain he didn’t have to. Trap would see it. How could he not? He watched Trap swallow hard and then his eyes misted over. He smiled down at his daughter. “There you are, sweetheart. You are like your mother. Quiet and lethal, and very strong. That’s the highest compliment I can pay you.” He leaned toward Cayenne. “Kiss me, baby. I know you’re upset with good reason, but I’m not being this way because I don’t love this little one. She’s tiny, and I’m afraid of crushing her.
Paul Mangan, the only other psychic surgeon, a young man on Team Three, had been flown from San Francisco to San Diego to help Trap out. With him had come two other members of his team, Javier Enderman and Gideon Carpenter.
That bone is disintegrating at a rapid rate. If second-generation Zenith caused this, we all have to stop using it until Lily can figure out why and what happened.”
“Could it be I have an unusual reaction to Zenith? An allergy like Trap or Wyatt suggested?”
“It’s possible. That’s not my field of expertise. I only repair things that are broken or damaged. The rest of you is strong and healthy, but that bone, which has always been extraordinarily dense, has been chewed through with tiny holes. The attack on it is nothing I’ve ever seen before. I tried to send the pictures of what I was seeing through Joe to Trap, Wyatt and Lily. I don’t know how successful that type of thing is going to be telepathically, but if this destruction is from Zenith, seriously, Malichai, no one should use it.”
Cone snail venom amped up like only Whitney can do it, Amaryllis confessed.
“You can handle this, Malichai. You’re the strongest man I know. You can. It will be a long hard road, but we’re all with you. You and I both know that because they’ve invested so much money in your training, the government is going to want to put a very expensive prosthesis on you so you can continue to go out on missions for them. You can say no. You will still be invaluable to us guarding our women and children at home. You can still be a soldier. Whatever you want to
“There’s a little salamander that lives in water, called the axolotl, with the largest genome ever fully sequenced. Universities are very interested in this particular salamander. In fact, it’s becoming very popular because it has the ability to grow any limb back, including eyes. They can regenerate spinal cords, any limb you cut off, even parts of the brain, but most salamanders can do that.”
“He says that the axolotls use stem cells to regenerate and he’s completed the sequencing of the genome. He claims he has unlocked a method to signal the pathway between genes and activate the ability to regenerate the genetic material and ultimately tissue. In other words, he can get Malichai to regrow his leg using some drug or gene-editing tool such as the one he already used on him. He would turn all of this
technology over to Lily if Malichai would be willing to be the first to be experimented on.”
