"You left the fundraiser early."
Lily shrugged. "I hardly think leaving early warrants your friend shoving me to the floor."
"Did you know a man was killed on the first floor of the hotel tonight?" Higgens circled around her, his shoes brushing her slacks.
"No, Colonel, I had no idea. I'm hoping there's a reason you're attempting to intimidate me, because I'm about to call the security guards in here."
Captain Hilton slapped the back of her head.
Lily glanced down at his shoes. She had seen them somewhere before. She remembered the strange inch-long scratch zigzagging along the inside near the seam. She looked up at Higgens. "I take it you're threatening me in some way."
"Don't play dumb with me. You're not dumb. You have your father's records, all of them, don't you?" Higgens continued to circle her.
Lily rubbed at her sore leg, not looking at him. "If I had the records I would have given them to Phillip, Colonel. The code my father used on the computer here and at home in his office meant absolutely nothing. Everything I read in his reports, you already had access to. The things I put together, guesses, conjecture, I passed on to General McEntire. I also typed them up and sent both you and Philip a copy. Beyond that, I have no knowledge of how my father managed to enhance psychic ability in the men."
"I don't believe you. Dr. Whitney. I think you have a very good idea how he did it and you're going to write it all up for me. The entire process."
Lily did look at him then, her eyes wide and accusing. "Do you think your friend here is going to beat me in the head and knock it out of me? If you believed I knew the process, you wouldn't touch me. You couldn't afford to."
Colonel Higgens reached down, grabbed a handful of her hair, and dragged her up. Lily fought to get her bad leg under her. Tears swam in her eyes, but she refused to cry out. She kept staring at the shoes. At the scratch. Higgens thrust her away from him so that she stumbled back against her desk.
Lily caught at the edge to steady herself. There was no way she could run even if they took their eyes off of her for a moment. Her leg was too weak. She leaned her hip on the desk to ease her weight off her bad leg. "Are you selling the information to the highest bidder, Colonel? Is that what you do? Sell out your country?"
Hilton reached out casually and slapped her. Lily swore and went straight for his throat, chopping viciously with the edge of her hand. It was so unexpected, he didn't have time to block, but fell back choking under the blow. Lily followed up with a knee to the groin, dropping him to the floor and kicking his head hard, using the outside edge of her strong leg.
At once her weak leg collapsed under her, spilling her back on the floor, right beside the writhing man. Lily rolled over and drove her fist into his solar plexus, robbing him of air. She pulled back her fist again, angry enough to go for his throat a second time, but Colonel Higgens caught her under both arms and dragged her away from the fallen man.
"Get up, Hilton," he said in disgust. "Get off the floor before I hit you myself. She's got a bum leg and she still kicked your ass."
Hilton rolled over and managed to push up to his knees, groaning the entire time.
Lily didn't struggle, allowing Higgens to help her to the desk where she sat on the edge. Her leg throbbed, already cramping viciously, but she looked at the two men without expression.
Hilton turned his head, still on his hands and knees, to glare at Lily. "I'm going to kill you with my bare hands."
Her gaze dropped to his hands, drawn by a force far more powerful than her will. She recognized his hands. Recognized his wrist. His watch. There had only been the briefest of moments, but she had seen what her father saw. Hands dragging him across the deck of a ship. A scratched shoe.
Raw energy massed in the room. Surges so powerful the lights flickered. The lamp on her desk exploded, shattering glass into fragments. Books flew off the shelves, heavy tomes hurtling through the air like missiles, pummeling Hilton. Pens and pencils, the letter opener, every sharp object in the room suddenly had one target in mind, covering the distance with blinding speed and lodging in Hilton's skin.
He went down screaming. Colonel Higgens casually drew his side arm and shot the desk inches from Lily. Shocked, she diverted her attention and the objects in the room fell harmlessly to the floor. Lily and Higgens stared at one another. He was pointing the gun right at her head.
"So, Dr. Whitney, your father obviously enhanced you too."
Lily's eyebrow arched. "He was interested in psychic enhancement and what it could do because I had natural ability. He saw what I could do and wanted to see if it could be developed to a much greater extent in others."
Hilton staggered to his feet, shuddering as he tried to pull the various objects out of his skin. Fortunately for him he was wearing a jacket that helped to keep most of the pen and pencil wounds shallow.
"Just in case you're wondering where the two hairpins that were sitting on the desk went, you'll find them in your bloodstream, winging their way to your heart," she said helpfully.
Hilton roared at her. "I'm going to cut you up into little pieces and feed you to the sharks," he snarled. He looked nearly as afraid as he did angry.
"Really? You'd better make certain you hold on to the knife while you're doing it, otherwise you're the one that will be cut into little pieces and fed to the sharks." As she spoke, her voice conversational, without rancor, she concentrated on the gun in Colonel Higgens's hand.
The hand began to tremble, the gun wavered, tried to swing around and point in Hilton's direction. She watched Hilton's eyes widen in alarm.
"Stop it, Dr. Whitney," Higgens demanded. "I need your brain, but not the rest of you. If you don't want me to shoot your leg, you'd better behave."
Lily looked away from the gun. "That was me behaving, Colonel. I wanted him dead. I should have driven the shards of glass right through his skull." She smiled at him. "Don't worry, I'm tired. Unfortunately, the drawback to a natural talent is it doesn't last that long. That's why my father wanted to enhance the psychics, to make them stronger with more endurance."
"So you did discuss this with him."
"Of course we discussed it. We discussed it for years." She tilted her head. "Did you have my father killed or did Ryland Miller?"
"Why would I want your father dead?" Higgens demanded. "I needed the process. He was being stubborn."
"You didn't offer him the right things. Where is Miller?" Her voice was as cold as ice, her blue gaze direct.
Be careful, honey. Don't go too far. He's a smart man. Ryland's voice brushed at the walls of her mind, but he sounded far away.
Lily tossed the cloud of dark hair over her shoulder. Not that smart. He had my father killed and he's using the same moron to come after me.
Damn it, Lily, don't push him too hard, it's dangerous. Ryland was adamant.
"You want Miller?" Higgens asked.
Hilton, finally managing to straighten, tossed the last of the pens to the floor and took a step toward Lily. He stopped abruptly when Higgens held up his hand in a silent order, but he never took his vengeful gaze from her face.
Lily ignored him. "If Miller killed my father, then, yes, I want him. You track him down and kill him. Show me his body and I'll give you the process. Otherwise, go ahead and kill me. You'll never figure it out on your own."
There was a small silence as the colonel thought it over. "You're a bloodthirsty woman, aren't you? I would never have guessed. You're always as cool as ice."