His mind began to race with the impossible. If Whitney had found her in India, he wouldn’t have bothered with her unless she had psychic ability. Ezekiel could control reptiles – a very rare gift. Nonny did to a lesser extent, as did Wyatt. But it was rare to be like them. As far as he knew no other GhostWalker had that gift.
Pepper might have been abandoned, as female children often were, especially if she came from parents not of Indian descent and was an orphan. Most likely she’d been found in the areas where deforestation had taken place, displacing snakes. If she had the ability to control snakes, as a child, would she have tried to play with them? Would she have been bitten? If she had, he doubted if the snake would release much of its venom into her, not with her gift. Was it possible that over time she’d developed an immunity to snakes on her own?
Pepper nodded. “I had several scars, but they were removed when I was a teenager.”
It was all coming together in his mind, just like it did when he was on the path to finding answers in his own lab. “Can you control a snake with your mind?”
Ezekiel swung his head toward Wyatt and then back toward Pepper, waiting for an answer. Wyatt knew that Ezekiel had spent the night outside his grandmother’s bedroom, and that he’d whispered to Ginger telepathically each time he heard her wake.
It was no wonder Pepper had been put in charge of the three babies. Wyatt already knew the answer to his question. Pepper definitely could control snakes.
“Yes,” Pepper admitted, her voice so low it was almost impossible to catch.
“It’s all makin’ sense now,” Wyatt said. “You were the inspiration behind his great plan.”
“You keep saying ‘him.’ You mean Dr. Whitney. I never saw Dr. Whitney when I was young. Only Braden. Whitney came later, after the children were born.” Pepper frowned in concentration. “I see where you’re going with this, but even if I was bitten repeatedly as a child and built up enough of the venom in my system, wouldn’t I have to keep getting bit for the toxins to remain at high enough levels in my system to do any good? And could my liver handle that?”
“Some of the best snake handlers gave themselves venom daily and it worked to keep them alive,” Wyatt pointed out. “A few used diluted venom and others used pure venom.”
“But they would have had to have daily injections,” Pepper pointed out.
“What if your body, as a child, adapted to the venom?” Wyatt said. “We’re always adaptin’. If one or both of your parents handled snakes, specifically cobras or kraits, and were bitten repeatedly…” He trailed off, his mind moving fast.
“Wait a minute,” Malichai interrupted. “Are you saying she could have been born already immune to a cobra bite? That her parents passed that to her?”
“I think it’s possible. If she was born with receptors that have one difference from ours, the bulky sugar coatin’, she might have been able to survive a bite as a child.” He also thought it possible that Whitney had discovered her when her parents were alive and he’d made her an orphan so he could have her. That would have been just like him.
Pepper was intelligent, she understood exactly what they were talking about, and if her parents were prominent in the field of herpetology, they could have come to Whitney’s attention. He would have considered Pepper extraordinary. She was intelligent, gifted and possibly an answer to a universal antivenom.
“Why doesn’t a viper bite cause necrosis of the skin? Even the most careful and famous of snake handlers have lost fingers,” Malichai asked her.
“That’s a good question,” Ezekiel agreed.
“What do you do when you’re bitten by one of the babies, Pepper? We’ll all need to know, especially Nonny,” Wyatt said.
Pepper frowned, thinking it over. “My response feels automatic so I have to actually go through the steps I take right now in my mind. I know what’s coming the moment I’ve been bitten. I slow my heart, cool my body temperature and flood the bite site with as much oxygen and cold as possible.”
Wyatt nodded. “That’s how she keeps the site from necrosis. She fills the tissues surroundin’ the bite with oxygen while she lowers the body temperature around the site.” His eyes met Pepper’s. “I’ll need a sample of your blood. Maybe I can figure out what’s not quite right about the mixture they gave you.”
“I’m still pretty sick.”
“From the viper venom, not the cobra venom. And when I tried to heal you, I could see how fast your body absorbed the venom to neutralize it. You’re healin’ fast, faster than I ever expected, but still, a soldier won’ have a bed and fluids and painkillers to get him through, out in the field. But, any GhostWalker can control their body to the point of lowering body temperature and…”
“Now you’re beginnin’ to sound like a mad scientist, Wyatt,” Nonny reprimanded. “What’s all this nonsense anyway? I want you and the boys to go get my great-grandbabies. Now, Wyatt. They’re all alone in that horrible place.”
Chapter 7